Season 4 Podcast 63 Self-Reliance Concept 8 Character
I have selected ten concepts from Ralph Waldo Emerson’s essay Self-Reliance. Each concept expands the virtues and variations of Self-Reliance or warns of the vices of the ways we forfeit Self Reliance:
· Concept 1: Blind Obedience
· Concept 2: False Charity
· Concept 3: Truth
· Concept 4: Faith
· Concept 5: Non-Conformist
· Concept 6: To Thine Own Self Be True
· Concept 7: Self-Reliance
· Concept 8: Character
· Concept 9: God
· Concept 10: Solitude
In this podcast we shall continue setting forth Emerson’s thoughts on Self-Reliance by focusing on Character.
We pass for what we are. Character teaches above our wills. Men imagine that they communicate their virtue or vice only by overt actions, and do not see that virtue or vice emit a breath every moment.
It is difficult to tie down the meaning of the word character because it is so ambiguous. Character can refer to personality: individuality, disposition, temperament, or essential qualities. She is a genius; or it can refer to reputation: status, prestige, name. He is a superstar; or it can refer to a moral component: integrity, honesty, honor, courage, rectitude. He is a person of character; or it can refer to eccentricities: He is a real oddball.
Let’s not think of character as reputation, caricature, or personal idiosyncrasies. Though they may affect our perceptions, they do not necessarily define a person’s true character. After all it may, like an actor on a stage, be merely a persona. Let me define character in the following way.
Character refers to the essential traits, attributes, or qualities inherent in an individual beyond the projected persona or advertised traits. Character is that person we really are and not that person we portray when the artificial stage is set, and the lights are on. Emerson refers to it as our ‘aboriginal self.’ Who we really are outlives all performances, all applause, all accolades, and all praise. Character is unscripted, without costume. Character is not that which we present in the present that makes us self-conscious. Character is that which we have become from the thousands of unscripted acts, words, thoughts, works, beliefs, and actions of the past. Character is the ghost of the past that haunts our present and determines our future. We protect our reputation, but our character reveals who we really have been, who we really are, and who we will really become. Character is a summation of our desires, the force of our will, the accumulation of our thoughts, our words, our actions, and our beliefs. Our character is the crystal ball of our lives that can only be read by those who seek truth rather than personal gain. “Know thyself” was prominently inscribed on the Temple of Apollo at Delphi. It could mean “know thy measure” or “know thy character.” Our knowledge is revealed by the words that come out of our mouth; our persona is revealed by the façade we hide behind; but our character is revealed by the silent feelings of our heart. There is where the truth lies.
When Emerson said that our character teaches above our wills perhaps he is referring not to our consciousness but to our subconsciousness. Sometimes we focus so much upon our body that we forget that we have a soul, an immortal spirit, a divine nature.
