Salinas Junior College - La Reata Yearbook (Salinas, CA)

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CONSISTENCY Ralph Waldo Emerson in his essay on self-reliance stated that two things that hindered people from being self-reliant were conformity and consistency. Because we are expected to conform to the beliefs and habits of our elders, it would seem that whether we do or not depends upon our consistency, for, without doubt, we do conform up to a certain period in our lives and then, according to our personal degree of consistency, we either rebel or continue along in the same old track. There is much to be said on both sides of the ques- tion. The whole question of self-reliance, then, narrows down to consistency. Taken as a whole, consistency is a trait to be admired. How, then, can it be a means of hindering self-reliance? It can truly be said that one who accepts withou t any doubt the teachings of his fathers is either a stupid plodder, or one who lacks the self-trust to dispute them. It can also be said that one who readily changes is fickle and weak-natured. However, whether or not a person consistent in conformity lacks self-reliance is doubtful. Often it requires self-reliance to be consistent. No law can be sacred-but that of your nature, says Emerson. It is part of human nature to be consistent in conforming to the past. There is a certain, definite craving in every man for everything to have its definite place. For this reason, he is only too glad to accept the doctrines of the past without dispute because they are tried and proved by the thousands of years of their existence. After adopting these doctrines it is part of his nature to be consistent to them. To ask man to surrender these beliefs and to assume new ones of his own manufacture is the same as asking each man to be another Moses or Christ. No one can accuse man of being timid or of lacking self-reliance because he conforms to the past. Man was blessed with a memory for the very purpose of remembering a past to conform to. The non-conformist who rejects the doctrines of the past will not be self-reliant because, groping for spiritual comfort of his own making he will not know his future. Man will always be consistent to conformity because- no man can violate his nature. The man who would be great by following Emerson's advice that the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweet- ness the independence of solitude, must consistently conform to this 450

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RETRIBUTION Lies! Lies in exchange for a kingdom Which I should have given to thee! Villains, a curse upon you. Come, Cordelle, thy father regrets he Was unfatherly. Dear daughter . . . Oh, God, what a mess I have made! Despair is heavy. I totter Upon the brink. I am afraid. She moves! Oh, Lord, let her live! She means so much to me now. I know she loves me. Please give Her strength that more sorrows bow Not this grey head further. Tell Me thou livest, dear Cordelle. Fools, why stand you there staring? You impudent wretches, bring water. Don't you see she is trying To open her eyes? Oh, my daughter- Bring water, I say!-Don't die. Your father wants you to live. You hear? Your father-don't die- Your father Wants you to live! She opens her eyes, she smiles. God takes you, my child, Cordelle. HELEN FONTES RAIN Drip, drip, drip, drip- The rain is dripping, beating, Dripping . . . on the roof. Now it sounds like footsteps lagging, Now like urgent drums avoice. Drip, drip, drip, drip- The rain is dripping fast. SACHI FUJIKAWA

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doctrine. He must be consistent to this theory for more than a single day. It must always be a new theory to him and kept fresh from day to dayg for if he should allow it to become a thing of the past, he would have to dismiss it as a thing of the past. To believe your own thought,-to believe that what is true for you in your private heart is true for all men,-that is genius. That is not only genius but also consistency. A person must think over his thoughts a long while before they become absolute conviction. The person who dismisses without notice his thoughts because they are his does so because he lacks the consistency to retain them the length of time necessary for them to become conviction. This person, lacking the consistency to settle upon a fixed purpose in anything, is restless and dissatisfied. Discontent is the want of self-reliance , says Emerson. It is not so. Discontent is the want of consistency. I hope , says Emerson, in these days we have heard the last of con- sistency! Such an occurence would surely mean the doom of all the best ideals in life-patriotism, religion, and honesty. It is impossible to live in the present without a consistent conformity to the past. The future depends upon cosistency. Self-reliance cannot be obtained except by consistency in conforming to a definite plan whether evolved in the past or in the present. In the end it will not be the little things that will count, but the general aspect. The traveler looking back over the recently crossed valley from a mountain top does not see each detail. It really matters little how a person lives, if he doesn't care. Emerson undoubtedly addressed those who did. Whether a person lives by a definite plan or just lives, the end is seemingly the same either way. It is only that those who know what they are doing are those who more fully express the divine idea. The present is short-lived, and yet all the rules are made just that that second might be lived rightly. The present is no sooner here than is becomes the past. We shall always have lived in that second whether we choose to acknowledge it or not. What we said or did in that second Will always be a part of us in its bearing on our future. Thus, we must retain a consistent conformity to the past. To say that consistency is the obstacle to self-reliance is wrong. Consistency and conformity are all that keep man from fearing the future. With all fears of the future allayed, man can be self-reliant in all else. Emerson, himself, drew on the past when he said, We are now men and must accept-destinyf' JOSEPH GENSER 046