How Does Work Guide the Development of Self?

Work guides the development of self in a vast variety of ways, it allows one to gain knowledge by experiencing hands on duties in an effort to acquire a living for self and/or for family. There are a number of key components that should be asserted in our efforts to go out into the world, make our way and hopefully elevate to that level or status that only very few of us dare to aspire. A person must be ambitious, driven and most importantly self-reliant. In order to accomplish any goal of great magnitude you must in fact, trust in your higher power (God) and trust and rely on you. The world, corporate and otherwise is operating as this huge, gigantic machine whose goal is to acquire, own and control all of the world’s natural resources, property and wealth, with only a hand full of men at the helm. We, the people, are the fuel that this machine runs on, for our labors we only receive the bare minimal compensation, which is what keeps this mechanical beast alive and thriving. We, human beings, are born with a multitude of precious skills and gifts. The planet earth is our one and only home, to bask in its wonders, nurture and preserve it and prosper together, as one unit, as a peaceful, loving society. We the people, our advances in life are going to fulfill only one or two prophecies. One, to help save, protect and repair our once thriving, beloved home, our earth. Two, assisting the mechanical beast in eventually destroying the one and only real possession that we human beings have, our planet. Wealth (which we will discuss a little later in the essay) means absolutely nothing without a ground to stand on. The despicable so called human beings that are responsible for the creation and continuance of this colonial, timeless, satanic, mechanical monstrosity mustn’t understand the severity of the situation at hand, or possibly they don’t care at all. To these inhuman beings, their love for wealth, power and all of their worldly possessions trumps their love for humanity and our slowly dying planet. Ultimately, it is up to us to decide in which direction we are going to go. On one hand we have the opportunity to support the beast, which owns and promises us the world in order to feed off of our greed and desires; this is how we are bated into this moral free world. The beast prides himself on heartless, merciless practices and lies; has left many of great men lost, gutless, and soulless without a penny in their pocket. On the other hand we can support humanity and our beautiful planted earth, this option doesn’t promise lucrative salaries or an abundance of material positions, but it does ensure us a future, a ground to stand on and most importantly, a home, a planet for our future generations to come. Just a little food for thought, when preparing to enter the unrelenting work force. We must refrain from the mighty grips of corporate enslavement. We must remain in full control of self in order to perpetuate our grandeur results.

The key is to focus within self. Get to know you. Find out your strengths and weaknesses. Find out what you’re passionate about. What drives you? What type of impact do you want to make on the world? Don’t be afraid, trust and believe in yourself. Emerson says “Man is timid and apologetic; he is no longer upright; he dares to say ‘I think,’ ‘I am,’ (Emerson 270). We must learn to be assertive, stand up and be accounted for. We must have confidence; “we were created in the image of he who is pure”(Bible). We must strive every waking moment to achieve and fulfill our destiny. Each and every single one of us has a calling, a purpose in life. We must break away for timid behavior and self doubt in order to accomplish our goals. “God must not have his work made manifest by cowards” (260). We must also always beware lookout for men that thrive on leading other men off course.

It is very important for us not to allow ourselves to be misled or deceived by negative, selfish outside influences. Every person has their own individual path that they must follow. In some cases, it has proven successful for people to come together and strive as one, with a single positive goal in mind, but building a solid organization takes time and extreme effort on everyone’s behalf and most notably, you must be in full control and aware of yourself. Never jump on the bandwagon of any unknown, mediocre movements or actions. We can and will accomplish our own magnificent feats.” What I must do is all that concerns me, not what the people think” (263). Sometimes it seems very difficult to break away from our familiar surroundings that we have grown accustomed to, we must realize that the entire earth is the land for humans, not just one country, state, city, neighborhood or city block. We must always be on the lookout for opportunities and always trust our ideas and thoughts. “A man should learn to detect and watch that gleam of light which flashes across him mind from within” (259). Never be envious or jealous of any man for any reason at all, we are all human, we all were created equally, we all have our own distinct qualities and attributes. The more time we invest in developing our own unique set of skills the much better off we will become. “There is a time in every man’s education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide” (259). Each one of us has the ability to learn, create and enhance our life in any shape, form or fashion conceivable. Therefore it is a massive waste of time worrying about what the next man has or what the next man is doing; we just need to work on ourselves.

As we start to develop our self-trust and start to rely on our self, we begin to realize that we are in full control of our lives. We begin to trust our own ideas, and have the confidence to put our thoughts in motion. We no longer need the approval of another person to confirm that we are something special, or to verify that our thoughts and ideas matter. As we discover our self-worth, we develop the ability to put our plans into action. We begin to comprehend and except that it is ok for our efforts to fail from time to time. It is ok for things to not go exactly how we planned because that’s life, trial and error, as long as we grow from it and not let it discourage us from future endeavors. One of the most beautiful things about being human is that not a single one of us is perfect and every last one of us constantly makes mistakes of a daily basis. Our brain grants us the ability to learn from and correct our mistakes, our willpower and our heart grants us the strength to continue on and not lay stagnate, even in the face of ridicule and persecution. “It is easy in the world to live after the world’s opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after our own” (263).

Some people can’t handle the fact that someone disapproves on them. Some of us can’t seem to function correctly in the face of derision. I like to refer to these individuals as people pleasers. People pleasers are professional followers; they have to consult with the public before coming to a conclusion or making any decisions. This lifestyle is incredibly detrimental to our independence. Our individuality is one of our most precious human gifts. Why are some of us electing to freely give this away? Why are some people afraid to go outside of their comfort zone? Why are they afraid to think outside of the box? Why do they care so much about what other people think? This is preposterous! These people are enslaved buy their own fears.”With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do. He may as well concern himself with a shadow on the wall” (265). Life is about taking chances. Life is about accomplishing our individual goals, not the goals of many men as a collective group. We mustn’t allow ourselves to remain in the shadows of other people our whole life. We must take full advantage of our one and only precious life. We only get one shot at this, let’s make it count. Let’s be an individual and not compromise our serenity with consistent behaviors and conforming to please the crowds. “The objection to conforming to usages that have become dead to you is that it scatters your force” (263). It may be difficult, but we must break free from compliance to the public. Our self-reliance is the key to our salvation.

None more exuberant of a display of self-reliance than that of which was indicated by Thoreau in the development of his bean field. He discussed his life as a dedicated farmer; the devotion and the pride that he poured into his bean field was inspirational. “What shall I learn on beans or beans of me?” (Thoreau 107) He allowed me to get an up close and personal view into his bean field and every little detail about how he worked to nurture and maintain it. At first he explained how the elements, the pests and rodents were his adversaries because they indeed affected the end results of his crops. He cherished him beans. “When they were growing, I used to hoe from five o’clock in the morning till noon” (111). What Thoreau did that was so impressive is that he combined his work in his bean field and made it apart of him. Most people separate their work from their everyday life, but Thoreau combined the two. He was able to become one with nature in every aspect in order to better understand what he was really accomplishing. His early adversaries ended up being him allies. His quest with nature helped him to realize that life doesn’t evolve around him. We must become familiar with and respect all life forms because they deserve to be here just as much as we do. Thoreau also learned to respect and live off the land as the original civilizations once did thousands of years ago. The aboriginal man lived and thrived off the land. They had the utmost respect for nature, all the creatures they shared their living space with, their neighbors and each other, learning a very valuable lesson in self-reliance. His solitude allowed him the freedom away from civilization to be able to depend solely on himself and nature. God knows he didn’t make a ton of money farming, but what he learned out there, being able to bond and become one with nature and retain the timeless knowledge and wisdom of living off the land, is beyond price. Nature is the breath we breathe, the air in our lungs and the blood in our veins. “Cato says that the profits of agriculture are particularly pious or just, (maximeque pius quaestus,) and according to Varro(5) the old Romans “called the same earth Mother and Ceres, and thought they who cultivated it led a pious and useful life, and that they alone were left of the race of King Saturn(6)” (Thoreau 114).

Thoreau also provides us with an example of an outcome when one neglects to rely on self and rather elects to rely on material possessions, in the case of John Field, which he and family migrated to America from Ireland. He was a very tough, hard working man. He worked for a neighboring farmer, bogging and turning up the land at a pay rate of ten dollars an acre. For every penny that John makes, it is spent as soon as his hand touches it. He must have his domesticated chickens, his tea, coffee, butter, milk and beef. He squanders all of his money on the family’s huge appetite for wants, instead of conserving his earning for the necessities of the family. “For he is discontented and wasted his life into the bargain; and yet has rated it as a gain in coming to America” (140). John truly doesn’t understand the concept of self-reliance at all. Thoreau tried very hard to educate his neighbor, to help John realize and grasp a better method of operation, but somehow, it just didn’t register.” With his horizon all his own, yet he a poor man, born to be poor, with his inherited Irish poverty for poor life, his Adam’s grandmother and boggy way, not to rise in the world, he nor his posterity” (143). When it comes to dealing with people like John Field, a person must really be patient and understanding. We must attempt to view this situation from many different angles. Every person has a different notion of their own personal American dream. Mr. Field may have come from a small town that was so extremely poor and lacked precious resources that we may take for granted like plenty of food, clean water and steady work. So, as far as John is concerned, he may be living his ideal version, of his family’s own personal American dream. John may have very well witnessed long, freezing nights with not a morsel in the house to feed his wife and children, his American dream may be to simply always have an abundance of different foods for his family at all times, which may very well be their own personal version of success. We may not approve of his lifestyle, we may feel that he can do much, much more with his life, but who are we to pass judgment on this man. Unless we know the sights, smells, and working of where he came from, we should not pass judgment. Until we have walked several miles in John Field’s shoes, we have no way of understanding why his eyes choose the sight they see.

The beauty in which that is Thoreau is that he provides us with solutions on how to avoid being plagued with John field type tribulations in his masterful higher laws writings. He explains how to acknowledge the many steps of progression that we must achieve in life, in order to have success. He also says that it is ok for us to be in touch with our primitive animalistic side, as long as the genius within us is always on the prowl for knowledge and wisdom. “The wildest scenes have become unaccountably familiar. I found in myself, and still find, an instinct toward a higher” (143). Thoreau made a lot of great points in this chapter. It kind of seems as if he is giving us several examples of how not to end up like John Field. Thoreau is very creative in this way, his criticisms of Mr. Field is immediately followed by a entire chapter of instructions on how to avoid ending up in similar circumstances. Nevertheless, the concepts in this chapter can solve Mr. Field’s problems in theory. First of all, Mr. Field isn’t even aware of the fact that he has any problems, so it may be a little difficult to convince him to take heed to these higher laws. The Field family’s situation, I honestly believe, was a bit too steep, even for Thoreau, but it was a wonderful gesture of humanity to reach out to his neighbor and try to fix his circumstances. Some people we just have to pray for, and let God do the rest. John Field needs more than just a few choice words to get him out of the rut that he worked very hard to create for himself and family, he needs a complete epiphany. My favorite quote from this chapter is “A command over our passions, and over the external senses of the body, and good acts, are declared by the Ved to be indispensable in the mind’s approximation to God.” Yet the spirit can for the time pervade and control every member and function of the body, and transmute what in form is the grossest sensuality into purity and devotion” (149). So beautifully said and written. Thoreau was so passionate about humanity elevating to our highest plateau. “All sensuality is one, though it takes many forms; all purity is one” (150). Not only did he want us to strive to be as successful as we can possibly be, but he wanted us to remain pure being’s throughout our entire journey. It wasn’t enough just gaining wealth; you must be a good person as well. We mustn’t rob, steal or cheat anyone. We must do everything in our power to do and be our very best, at all times. “We are all sculptors and painters, and our materials is our own flesh and blood and bones. Any nobleness begins at once to refine a man’s features, any meanness or sensuality to imbrute them” (151). Simply Brilliant!

As we embark upon this journey of life, there will be very few influences that have the ability to corrupt us in such a high magnitude, than our insatiable appetite to acquire wealth. The love for money, the fascination with currency and power, the desire to be one with wealth has claimed more lives on this planet than all other occurrences combined. The obsession with wealth is what fueled almost every war, every genocide, the holocaust, century’s of slavery, the drug trade, prostitution, robbery, taxes, the prison system, poverty, starvation, famine, politics, the government, hatred, racism, sexism, ethnocentrism, destruction of habitats, annihilation of our rainforests, extinctions of our precious trees, plants and wild life, colonization and most likely any other negative quality that you can link to humanity. We must comprehend clearly, that most of the horrors in the world, the pure, unadulterated, unimaginable, evils of the globe are motivated by this debilitating, yearning for this almighty ruler, that is wealth. “Want is a growing giant whom coat of Have was never large enough to cover” (Emerson 832). Most of us in civilization, need money to survive, our society is designed to have us depended on their currency, but we must beware of the darkness, greed and shadiness that can invade and corrupt our soul at a moments notice. We must recognize that our life here on earth should be one of love, peace, understanding, caring and sharing. We must learn to divide up our gifts with our neighbors, friends and family. We need to realize that our self-worth isn’t determined by what we have, we shouldn’t be proud to have so much and look down upon or think we are better that a person that has less than us. Our self-worth and self-respect should be based exclusively on the content on our character, the type of person we are, the goodness and compassion within us, rather than how rich and powerful we are. The real power lies only in God. This humanly sense of power, privilege, pride and wealth is false, and will ultimately lead to the demise and destruction of mankind as we know it. Our lawmakers are unlawful, our government is ungovernable, and our citizens hate what they see in the mirror. These actions, events, and occurrences are all by design. Deliberate designs to keep us lost, ignorant and astray from unity; to keep us from realizing that our life consists of nothing more than fueling the mechanical beast. We must wake up. We must realize that if we hate, cheat, harm or impair our neighbor, we also destroy ourselves. Time is running out, we must now know the truth, the future of humanity consists of us uniting as one. One of our first tasks would have to be minimizing our intake of material waste, and acquire the desire to intake true wealth, riches that can’t be taken from us; the wealth of knowledge, wisdom and truth. Billions of dollars, estates and worldly possessions are won and lost daily, material belongings come and go, knowledge, wisdom and truth lasts a lifetime, these riches can never be removed from us. “Spend after your genius, and by system. Nature goes by rule, not by sallies and saltations” (831). We must learn to invest our money into our own progression and other worth wild organizations promoting the advancement of humanity and global affairs. We tend to unknowingly, totally support and feed the beast, with our reckless spending and our unpurified actions and behaviors. “A system must be in every economy, or the best single expedients are of no avail” (832). I am now forced to think back to our dear friend John Field. What system did John have or lack thereof. John wasn’t able to acquire the kind of wealth expressed in this chapter because he didn’t desire to and the fact that he spent every penny of his earning didn’t help his case neither. People say that ignorance is bliss, but I beg to differ; John’s ignorance kept him oblivious to the fact that his reckless spending supported horrific events such as wars, slavery and many other unknown disastrous events. Perhaps, if John was fully aware of what he was doing and where, exactly his money was going, maybe he would have had second thoughts about how he spent his money. Right now today, the date is July 12, 2009 and nothing has changed. Our reckless spending still supports slave labors and sweatshops overseas, wars, capitalist enterprises that only take and never give. The beast is extremely active in today’s society; in fact it is larger, stronger and more powerful than ever, running off the fuel of man. We better wake up very soon and reclaim what rightfully belongs to us, before the beast devours everything in sight, leaving behind nothing at all.

One of the main problems with today’s society is that we don’t stand up for ourselves anymore, we just stand by and let the system take full advantage of us. Back in the days we fought for our rights, people would actually join together and take action for the betterment of humanity, this is why I love the inspirational writings of Frederick Douglass. He had to fight every day of his life to educate himself and eventually take back his freedom. In chapter eleven, Douglass began to realize that if he was ever going to become free, he better act fast. He felt as if the walls were closing in on him and his window of opportunity to escape was getting smaller and smaller. At this point in his life his master allowed him to go out and work for other people as long as he brought home all of the money. Very similar to how pimps do their hoes. Douglass was getting fed up; he was tired of working so very hard every day, just so Master can reap all the rewards. “I continued to think, and to think about the injustice of my enslavement, and the means of escape” (Douglass 11,2). Douglass also realized that this relationship between master and slave was all about the money. He saw that this whole ordeal surrounding slavery is strictly, all about the funds. It wasn’t that the white people really thought they were smarter or better than the black slaves. They were just willing to do any and everything in their power to get that free labor and wealth that the slave trade was generating. They lied, stole, cheated, beat, raped, tortured, mutilated and murdered millions of African people, all in the name of currency. Douglass finally made his getaway; it went very smoothly, he was planning this for years and pulled it off without a hitch. “I have been frequently asked how I felt when I found myself in a free state. I have never been able to answer the question with any satisfaction to myself. It was a moment of the highest excitement I ever experienced” (11,3). Even though he felt great at that moment, his heart filled with sorrow and ached for all the slaves still living the nightmare that is slavery. He had to watch his back all the times, he was very paranoid about being captured and sold back into slavery. Douglass bounced around a few of the free northern states before he and his wife settled in a town called New Bedford. He was able to find steady work and establish himself as an anti-slave activist. I know this was definitely his lifelong dream which was the moment he had been waiting his whole life for, to finally obtain his independence and self-reliance. The new found liberty and freedom was the birth of Frederick Douglass the writer, abolitionist, scholar, business man and several other lucrative titles. Douglass’s desire to be free started at a very young age. His mind was able to conceive the thought, his brain was able to construct a plan of action, his heart, will and determination allowed him to accomplish the most rewarding prize that a slave can dare to fantasize, his freedom. Frederick Douglass made his dreams come true; so can we. He envisioned a huge plan, believed in his self, relied on and trusted his self, he didn’t put his faith in man to come and rescue him, he merely trusted and believed in himself. There is nothing in the world that we can’t do, let’s put a plan together and put it in motion.