Emerson wrote in Self-Reliance, “Man is timid and apologetic; he is no longer upright; he dares not say ‘I think,’ ‘I am,’ but quotes some saint or sage. He is ashamed before the blade of grass or the blowing rose. These roses under my window make no reference to former roses or to better ones; they are for what they are; they exist with God to-day. There is no time to them. There is simply the rose; it is perfect in every moment of its existence. Before a leaf-bud has burst, its whole life acts; in the full-blown flower there is no more; in the leafless root there is no less. Its nature is satisfied, and it satisfies nature, in all moments alike.”

In quoting Emerson, I am already become the ‘timid and apologetic’ man he speaks of. I am like many others who look to others, namely those from the past to answer questions I have today. Maybe it is the adage that we learn from our past, no matter whose past it is. Maybe all of us are trying to break the historical cycles that keep bringing us down because we repeat the mistakes of the past. No matter what the reason, many of us no longer try to find answers of our own, but look to the past and what has worked before to help us define our way.
In our society, we have put much trust into not only our past, but into certain individuals, these ‘saint(s)’ and ‘sage(s)’ of our time that help us, guide us in our every day lives. These include lawyers, doctors, accountants, and many others give us advice and help us pave and define our way through life. All of these and many others help us stay upright because many of us are not satisfied with what nature and ‘all moments alike’ has in store for us. We want to prevent our leaf-bud from bursting too soon, not wanting to reveal who ‘I am’ until we can freeze time and be forever remembered as ‘simply the rose,’ ‘perfect in every moment’ of our existence. However, in becoming ‘timid and apologetic’ we become trapped, only able to watch ‘these roses under [the] window,’ unable to become and ‘exist with God to-day.’
We live our lives by coffeespoons, unable to break free and become a ‘leafless root,’ exposed but real and as alive in nature as ‘the full-blown flower.’ Maybe someday we will be able to ‘burst’ free of human nature and be satisfied with mother nature, perfect without looking to ‘former roses’ to build our gardens and plant new seeds. So, I hope that in all of this rhetoric, there is some of my own voice, some of what ‘I think.’ But, even if there is not, I think I still need the advice of ‘sage(s)’ of our time and I know that, maybe, someday, my rose will bloom and I will no longer hold back that perfect moment.