The Transparent Eyeball





If you became a transparent eyeball, you would see that “all mean egotism vanishes” as you become one with nature. And then you experience the greatness of God.

I believe that is the point Ralph Waldo Emerson was getting at when he came up with the metaphor. Today was his birthday in 1803, and if you count the years between the day he died and the day I was born I only just missed meeting him by a single lifetime. If a meeting could have been arranged, I would have told him just how much I enjoyed reading his essay on Self-Reliance.

Some might consider it to be the greatest treatise on egotism ever written.

It’s all about self-reliance right? Being a law unto oneself, without offering justification. He actually said he would like to have the word "Whim" engraved over the lintels of his door-post! What could be more egotistical? You’ll have to judge for yourself. I am not going to repeat another word he said because I have my own things to say here. That’s why I enjoyed reading his essay on self-reliance, and why I would recommend that anyone who would like to have the courage to do something great and original without asking anyone else for permission. 

The Soul of the Matter

We use the word self these days as a stand in for a much older and more nuanced concept of the soul. The idea of the self is connected to the movement and breathing that indicates life. The reason I bring it up here is that we are not talking about the self with a small “s” here, worrying about what others will think about your original thoughts, feelings, and perceptions. If we are to be on equal terms with the truth of nature, the small “s” has to vanish into nothingness through the Transparent Eyeball. Let’s be clear. We’re talking about our souls here, the very breath that moves within us for some purpose we will only know if we rely upon our own good sense and no one else’s.

No Excuse 

Why not rely on other people for wisdom? What about the great thinkers and our wise ancestors? Their wisdom died with them to be found again some other time. The greatest library the world had ever seen burned in Alexandria centuries ago, and we moved along anyway. We didn’t need those books to come up with new ideas. In the structure of scientific revolutions an original thought and presence of mind is all that is needed. If we go memorizing the words of Socrates, who is to say that we would understand him? He was misunderstood in his own time and put to death because of it. This is where meanness and greatness converge and diverge. Greatness is rude in its singularity, and there is no excusing it. It is insensitive to the sensibilities of others. The meanness of the crowd comes from their unanimity, and there is no excuse for that either.

The Middle Finger

We have to thank Galileo for using his opera class to look toward the stars instead of the sour and disapproving faces of those who thought the whole universe revolved around them. What reason had he to pay them any mind? Their opinions were  inconsequential. The universe did not revolve around them, and he proved it by relying on what he had seen or perhaps absorbed with his own transparent eye. If giving someone the middle finger meant during his time what it does in ours,  Galileo might be pleased to know that his middle finger is now venerated, and preserved in a jar. I know Emerson would.

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