Self Reliance in Action

My favorite essay by Ralph Waldo Emerson is Self Reliance.  It captures the American character, and places a crown of gold on the Protestant Work Ethic.  As we assist the Iraqi people to sovereignty on June 30^th, they should probably give this essay a close read.  They should also read this poem:

 

Invictus

 

Out of the night that covers me,

Black as the Pit from pole to pole,

I thank whatever gods may be

For my unconquerable soul.

 

In the fell clutch of circumstance

I have not winced nor cried aloud.

Under the bludgeonings of chance

My head is bloody, but unbowed.

 

Beyond this place of wrath and tears

Looms but the Horror of the shade,

And yet the menace of the years

Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.

 

It matters not how strait the gate,

How charged with punishments the scroll,

I am the master of my fate:

I am the captain of my soul.

 

---William Ernest Henley 1849–1903

 

            Back to the grindstone. --GT