Giftyyss

According to Emerson, the only gifts worth giving are the ones made by hand by the giver. It does feel great and real to receive a hand made gift: something that the person put obvious effort and thought into, to make something specifically for you through their own sweat and tears. But the fact that society has changed since the days of Emerson still stands. Maybe when the world was wrought with little Emersons and daughters it was average for people to have jobs like miners and sailors but its more common these days that people work in office buildings or on computers... so what does the cubicle worker bring as a gift? a stapler? a spreadsheet? it doesn't work the same way as the girl who sews a handkerchief by hand or the miner who handcrafts a gem for someone they care about. Today a person works hard for the money they earn, with that they may buy you a gift that they see fit for you, something they have thought about and that they feel you would enjoy, more than anything they are capable of making.
But on the other hand, there are the times when someone just buys something mindlessly, like a gift card. They are such common gifts these days, but the fact is that there is very little thought behind a gift card, it tends to take away the feeling behind a gift.
According to Emerson, gifts should be received without emotion. This too contradicts what we know today. If one were to not acknowledge their excitement upon opening up a gift, the giver would most likely be rather disappointed. Why must a person hide their feelings of excitement when the giver has spent time and energy preparing this for you, they have done it to see your excitement- and you are depriving them of that reward.
One gift that I find especially rewarding is when someone makes an album of photos for me, with commentary. Because I like receiving these, I chose to make one for my dad on his 50th birthday. It was a lot of work to get pictures of his childhood, all without him knowing. But in the end, after all of the work and time I put in, it ended up being something that he really enjoyed. My grandmother once sewed a pillow depicting the pink power ranger (my favorite at the time) which I found to be a very Emersonian gift. She chose something she knew I'd like, and gave me her time and love built into the pillow, something I could use to relax. Not only this, but the gift reminds me of how she is always there to comfort soothe.
If I were to completely switch my lifestyle in the ways of gift giving and receiving to make myself completely emersonian, i imagine that i might upset a good amount of people. There'd be times when I might make a gift for someone, and they would think I was cheap, but I think the most prominent problem would be that of the non-emotion: not showing delight when opening a gift. The giver would be hurt and confused.

Reliance of the Selfish Variety

I definitely chose the most common quote: "What i must do, is all that concerns me, not what the people think." This is a popular quote for a reason. It communicates a transcendental truth: you do what you gotta do for yourself. Its the only one that really jumped out at me in reading through the list of given quotes, probably because it is nearest to simple terms- easiest to understand. But I also feel like theres a possibility that it jumped out at me because it seems especially relevant to me right now. Up until rather recently this quote has been one of those concepts- those quote-able,noble truths that you just toss into conversation where its appropriate because it sounds good, rather than because its something you truly understand.

Now, to take this epic quote and relate it to something that seems so incredibly trivial ( I feel like a scoundrel doing this, but... I must so..) : High school. OK so yes, this is Emerson, but in order for me to understand what he says, I need to relate it to something I have experienced, High school. High school is crazy, people joke about it and capitalize off it with movies like "mean girls" etc. They say its the greatest time of your life, but there are times what it definitely does not feel that way. That quote sounds so concrete and obvious: do what you need to and if its what you truly must do, then everything will work out. (that's how i read it at least). Easier said than done, Emerson. There is a whole lot of people pleasing high-school politics that we need to take into account here, you piss off the wrong people and you are done-zo, my friend. Its like "Project Runway", "one day your in, the next day your OUT"... there's not tip-toeing around it. The fact is you can never make everyone happy: "You can make all of the people happy, some of the time, and some of the people happy all of the time, but you can never make all of the people happy all of the time" (those quote marks were pointless because theres no way thats a direct quote but... thats how I remember it) Anyway, direct or not the point is the same. Its impossible to please everyone- all you can do is live life in a way that makes you proud. If you are always doing what you must, then you have nothing to be ashamed of, and you are essentially defending yourself, by giving your enemies nothing to attack. It by no means says that you will never mess up, everyone does, but when you do, you need to face it. Take responsibility and do what you must to fix it. People will try to drag you down, but they'll have nothing on you. If nothing else, at least you can look in the mirror at the end of the day with self respect and pride in what you see. Chances are, if you can do this, others will have respect for you as well.

Its so hard not to be blinded by your few enemies, for whatever reason they tend to overshadow your numerous friends and supporters. Accepting that there will be some people who just plain don't like you for no good reason is the hardest thing to do. But it is necessary - give up on trying to please them because you are not being true to yourself, if you can keep your conscience happy, you are on the right track.