I can do nothing on my own

Morning: Psalms 121, 122, 123; Judges 18:1-15; Acts 8:1-13

Evening: Psalms 124, 125, 126; John 5:30-47

Ralph Waldo Emerson promoted the illusion of perfect self-reliance in his book, On Walden Pond. Even Jesus owns, though, “I can do nothing on my own.”  Of course, we all need some healthy independence. But the world is not built for ‘making it on our own’. Think about what a stretch it would be for any one of us to do that for even a day! History is full of people on individualistic quests for accomplishment or salvation. If humankind cannot learn, however, the fact of our inescapable and beautiful interdependence, our fierce self-reliance will, ironically, kill us.

 

Hi Folks,

I wish I could say it was a deliberate mistake to see if you were all awake, but it wasn’t! … I was doing some reading about Emerson’s essay on self-reliance and got mixed up … As one of you pointed out (thanks Ted!), it was Henry David Thoreau who wrote On Walden Pond! So it was Emerson who promoted self-reliance, but in his essay! As Ted said “they were also interconnected and Thoreau depended on Emerson’s support."