A friend of mine asked for ideas for a new tattoo. Something meaningful, words, not a picture, a quote or poem or something in that arena. It reminded me of an influential passage by Ralph Waldo Emerson that gets me through daily life. I wrote it down on a yellow piece of notebook paper from somewhere when I was a freshman in college in 1996. I still have that original, handwritten, page - now crumpled with age.
When I researched it online to send him a link of the poem, I came to realize that the piece was actually inaccurately attributed to Ralph Waldo Emmerson. The poem MAY have been originally written by Bessie Stanley and published in the Lincoln Sentinel on November 30, 1905.
Emerson’s version (the one I transcribed 14 years ago) goes like this:
To laugh often and much;
To win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children;
To earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends;
To appreciate beauty, to find the best in others;
To leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition;
To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived.
This is to have succeeded.
Bessie Stanley’s version can be found here: http://bit.ly/dxolkc
For a brief moment, my heart stopped at the thought the poem that my major decisions were weighed against was a lie. Then I thought to myself, who cares if Emerson actually wrote them? Words are words. Some inspire, some hurt. No matter who wrote them, they have been a major inspiration in my life and I’m still (after 14 years) thankful to have found them.
