🪷 Solitude in the midst of the crowd

Another favorite--and deeply meaningful to me--passage from Emerson

This is another favorite passage of mine from Emerson’s essay “Self-reliance” (which I wrote about in my previous post), and it likewise speaks to what is on my heart right now.

“It is easy in the world to live after the world’s opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after our own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude.”

— Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Self-Reliance”

This sentence vividly captures my experience. (I’m also working on a longer-form essay about the following, but here are some brief thoughts for now, connected to this Emerson quote.)

When no one else is around, I can pretty easily keep company with myself and follow the cues of my body and mind.

But when I’m around other people, their wants and needs become my main focus.

What I’ve been (and may always be) trying to cultivate is the ability to keep hold of my selfhood—self-companionship, self-loyalty, and self-awareness—while I’m in the presence of other people.

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