Louisa May Alcott’s “Rose in Bloom” was my favorite book in middle school – similar to her more popular “Little Women,” but featuring a group of cousins instead of siblings, and less sad – and a reference to the wisdom of Ralph Waldo Emerson’s essays led to my reading and admiring Emerson.
Alcott was raised on Transcendentalism, which is my favorite literary movement for a number of reasons – the emphasis on the divinity of nature, man’s inherent goodness, intuition, self-reliance and spiritual aspiration – but also the way its greats – Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Walt Whitman, Alcott’s father Bronson Alcott, Margaret Fuller and others – all seemed to be clustered together in Concord, Massachusetts, either as permanent residents or visitors.
How does that happen, I wondered when I was a student. How could so many brilliant writers, poets, thinkers and innovators all end up in the same place? I noted the same trend in other movements as well – the American expats in Paris in the early 20th century, all hanging out in the same drawing rooms; Shakespeare and Marlowe, both brilliant playwrights, were contemporaries and rivals; the Romantic poets and writers whose gatherings generated the canonical works of English literature we encounter in textbooks today (as well as a lot of drama).
I could go on, because this is more than a trend. It is a fact, observable across all disciplines. Greatness begets greatness. When we want to excel at something, we seek someone who already excels. Talent is born and bred, but it is also shaped and honed, filed and finished. We brainstorm together because good conversation – the very act of coming together to speak, analyze and grapple with our thoughts, problems and ideologies – is what cleans, clarifies, cuts and polishes the raw gemstones mined in our minds. Through conversation, strangers become mentors and friends.
Emerson was the anchor for the Transcendentalists. A Harvard-educated Unitarian minister, he was the father of the movement, a writer and lecturer who took countless walks and had countless chats with his many visitors. But before that mentoring phase of his life commenced, he was in Europe, meeting the leading literary figures whose philosophies would influence his work. He, in turn, would influence many others – and we don’t have to share his religious views to benefit from his wisdom. I keep one of his quotes on my desktop: “Let me never fall into the vulgar mistake of dreaming that I am persecuted whenever I am contradicted.” I think that reminder should be posted liberally, both online and off.
I was thinking of this while sitting on the front porch one Saturday morning in mid-August. The horse chestnut tree is turning, apples and pears are ripening and the new school year is just beginning. My 8-year-old twins are now in third grade, and my 4-year-old has started 4K. We moved our oldest son, 11, to a classical academy – a low-tech public charter school that emphasizes character development and intellectual formation – because he was being bullied and, by the end of the last school year, really internalizing the persecution. The classical education model, which has been adopted by Catholic schools in many dioceses, prizes reading and dialogue – conversation – as a means of learning. He loves history and has an interest in languages, so we are hoping he will flourish.
Fall is when we grow serious about life, throwing off the frivolities of summer and anticipating what will be needed to get through the coming winter. We are told “Man cannot live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4) a reminder that sustenance must be physical and mental as well as emotional and spiritual. We are nourished by this conversation with God through study of his Word, through the wisdom of saints and the writings and teachings of theologians.
Since Bishop Powers enacted the Maintenance to Mission initiative, many parishes have amped up their educational offerings, providing Bible studies, film series, Cenacle groups, book clubs and other gatherings with faith and fraternity at their core. Fall is an apt time, then, to take advantage – to become students again, to seek out meaningful conversation with friends and mentors, to build community while enriching our understanding of the One who will always exceed our comprehension and who will, therefore, remain an excellent course of study throughout our lives.
