Interacting with the ordinary through the eyes of Emerson and Woolf.

While Despite living and writing at different times and in different places, both Ralph
Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) and Virginia Woolf (1882-1941) espoused philosophies which
starkly deviated from the Enlightened thought of seeking the “really real” by focusing on the
everyday, ordinary experience of the human condition. Rather than seeking an epiphany of
through insight, art, beauty or knowledge in isolation, both thinkers encouraged readers to
liberate themselves from such intense and solitary constraints. While achieving this perspective
from different vantage points, Emerson and Woolf can be identified as non-conventional thinkers
whose work altered the course of the post- modern philosophical period.
Living during the embryonic stages of new nation called the United States, Emerson’s
education and early vocation remained steeped in the tradition of John Locke, in theor the ideals
of the blank slate upon which the experience of life is written. After a crisis of faith, Emerson’s
perspective changed. While lecturing, writing and thinking, he came to see life as one in which
all humans must actively participate rather than the experience of life defining a human’s
potential. While grieving the death of his son, Emerson also discovered that trauma, that crisis,
that and great changes should not be the impetus of insight, of living well, or of being present. In
his essay entitled Experience, Emerson wrote, “There are moods in which we court suffering, in
the hope that…we shall find reality, sharp peaks and edges of truth. But it tuns out to be…
counterfeit. The only thing grief has taught me, is to know how shallow it is” (Experience). In
essence, Emerson projected the fact that humans need to live daily and not wait for tremendous
personal chaos to find meaning in life. As he continued in Experience, Emerson refers to these
moments of awareness as “joyful presentness” where humans remain active and, “Everything
good is on the highway” (Experience). If the highway represents the course of ones life, Emerson
stated that the journey, that the challenge, that the awareness instructs the meaning of life.
Additionally, in his essay entitled Self Reliance, Emerson pushed further encourages to
release humans to relinquish from their dependence on seeking approval, on fitting in, and on
repeating patterns of the past. As the title insinuates, Emerson encouraged everyone to live in the
moment regardless of any social norm or distinction. “To believe in your own thought, to believe
that what is true for you in your private heart is true for all me, -that is genius…It seems to be a
rule of wisdom never to rely on your memory alone, but to bring the past for your judgment into
the thousand-eyed present and to live ever in a new day” (Self Reliance). Emerson taught that
humans cannot live fully if constrained by the past or if seeking only to conform to the accepted
traditions. In the end, Emerson encouraged every human to seek their own truth, to find the spark
of divine within themselves and to interact with the world with open eyes and in a similarly
active, spiritual and meaningful way. Thus, Emerson embraced the ordinary as the extraordinary.
Virginia Woolf achieved a similar perspective. As witnessed in her novel To the
Lighthouse, Woolf interjected moments of clarity amidst the chaos of a world where most simply
lived to fit in. Lily’s revelation regarding perspective, lighting, moments of complete clarity
serve as the foundation for Woolf’s philosophy. “The great revelation had never come. The great
revelation perhaps never did come. Instead there were little daily miracles, illuminations,
matches struck unexpectedly in the dark…” (To the Lighthouse). Living in the moment, Lily
witnessed daily miracles and light that unexpectedly illuminated her world. By embracing
ordinary life, Woolf allowed each of her characters to recognize the extraordinary nature of their
existence IF if they were willing to see beyond the expectations of their culture, of theand
accepted expected norms. By opening ones heart and mind to the small miracles of life, Woolf
encouraged her readers to witness, “…this eternal passing and flowing…” and to be, as Lily was,
“…struck into stability” (To the Lighthouse). Like Emerson, Woolf also espoused the view that
all humans carry a sense of the divine within them and that living, learning, listening, seeking
challenge, embracing the ordinary allows all mankind to live free.
The timeliness of this question should not be lost on any of us. After finishing the reading
and listening to the lectures, I was struck by the words shared by Professor Roth. “You know
what Emerson's saying here is that there are times in our lives when we think that we're living a
kind of banal existence, everything's routine, that you know, we go to work every day, or we go
to school every day, we have our meals at the same time, we see the same members of our
family, our friends, our spouses, our lovers, whatever depending on our situation, and after a
while we realize we're not feeling things, it's just going through life, going through the motions
we might say, right? And sometimes in such moods we want a crisis. You want something big to
happen, even if it's a bad thing because it make you feel more alive, more vital” (Postmodern
Everyday, Part I). As numbers rise, as the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic sweeps the
globe, which one of us would not want to return to a “kind of banal existence”? As humans
struggle with this unprecedented time, Emerson and Woolf’s words hold even more vivid power
and significance. In the midst of despair we can find meaning, in the midst of chaos we can find
opportunity, in the midst of lockdown and isolation we can open our eyes to the ordinary,
beautiful and extraordinary world and to the gift and meaning of our lives. And, perhaps more
importantly, when we emerge from this pandemic, we can choose to live each day with “joyful
presentness” (Experience) and to witness all of the “little daily miracles” (To the Lighthouse).