Bumper+Stickers


 * Emerson and Thoreau are challenging writers; sometimes they're hard to follow. But they have a habit of expressing some of their key ideas in very brief and very clear sentences. I call these "bumper strickers."

As you read the pasages by Emerson and Thoreau, watch for brief statements each makes that might make a good bumper sticker. Well, some can be a bit longer than that.

Begin your post by quoting what the writer said, and then explain what you think he means by it.**user:brtom

"The power which resides in him is new in nature, and none but he knows what that is which he can do, nor does he know until he has tried." Emerson, Self-Reliance

I think that this is one of the best bumper stickers right here because it shows power and also it shows people that they are the ones with power. There are many ways to describe this but like my friend always said if "i dont try something new than i'll never learn something new." Because we all have the power to do amazing things but it is up to us to find out how to do them. If i would have never tried soccer in the first place then i would have never had made so many good friends and would probably not have anything to do on the weekdays. And sometimes we fail but we must keep trying like Michael Jordan just because he didnt make his high school basketball team he didnt stop practicing and then won numerous times the championship for the chicago Bulls. 1201564042

One bumper sticker I found that really seemed inspiring was this.

" A man is relieved and gay he has put his heart into his work and done his best; but what he has said or done otherwise, shall give him no peace." - Ralph Emerson, Self Reliance

This bumper sticker tells me when someone who has put their time and hard work into something that has taken almost a lifetime will be the ones who have been respected and treated with loyalty for the accomplishments that has been achieved. It's kind of like doing people a great portion of favors or deeds and making people feel good about themselves. That's something people should look upon themselves. But when a person says something claiming he/she has achieved the impossible and spreading the word is something that can bring shame and sorrowness to that individual. People like it that they seen or witnessed something that could change thier lives for the good of mankind. That's what counts, it has always been said, your actions speak for your words, or you can talk the talk, BUT can you walk the walk. 1201575028

The Bumper Sticker that really appealed to me was:

"Nature always wears the colors of the spirit." - Ralph Emerson, Nature

This bumer sticker tells me that no matter what you look like on the outside what counts in what is on the inside. Sometimes it takes someone with good morals to stick out like a sore thumb and be a leader. Instead of following the crowd which may go down a path that is taken way to much to lead to an unfourtunate event maybe take the path that is less taken and be a leader not a follower. Sometimes I think we as humans do things that we wouldn't normally do on our own but we fall into peer pressure. I also think that Emerson is saying that we as people all start out the same with a clean soul but we always find some of the simplest ways to mess things up. I did like this line it really caught my attention when we were reading this story in class. 1201653178

I thought one of the best bumper stickers was;

"To be great is to be misunderstood" - Ralph Waldo Emerson, Self Relience

This one was not the best bumper sticker but it was the one that i most understood. I understood this bumper sticker because it is very straight forward. It means that a lot of great people changed the history but at the time they were misunderstood. Like a lot of scientists, and explorers, and even Walt Whitman was misunderstood by most people back in his time. What i am trying to get at is people do not have to agree with you in order to make you right. Most of the time people will not agree with you just because of how they were taught what was right and what was wrong, it is called perspective. 1201660957

“I become a transparent eyeball; I am nothing; I see all; the currents of the Universal being circulate through me; I am part or particle of God”-Self Relience I think this sentence is stating that, for once, he is close to God. He escaped all the worries and judgment he is faced with throughout his life. He writes as if his passion is nature. Emerson is explaining how his ego vanishes and all there is to think of feel is God. He feels one with God when he is in the presence of nature and all its wonderful assets. My experiences with this sentence would have to be when I write. I’ve been writing poems and songs since I was little. Whenever I am alone in my room with a pen and a notebook my immediate reaction is to write. I love to express my feelings and my view on life in my poems. Writing is something I have a strong passion for; I feel God is one with me most when I have a pen and paper in my hand. God blessed me with the gift of being insightful and passionate. When I’m writing I feel like I have complete control over everything I say, think or feel. Nothing else matters when I’m writing, I become one with God and every thought of failure and anguish is silenced. My pen is my key to unlocking my words for everyone to hear, and my paper is the door to which my words will be secretly kept. When I step out of that bedroom door I am once again brought into this world of hate and worry.

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"To be great is to be misunderstood..."

This was the bumper sticker i picked. I reallly liked it because it seemed to make sense but at the same time not really. This left a mysterious feeling and by far to me was the best bumper sticker. At the same time it meant that most people who were great or thought different were prosecuted by their peers. This really relates to alot of people like Emerson stated in the poem, copernicus, and galieo were just a few to be named. At the same time though it could mean something about nature. that the things that are great in nature are misunderstood, a tree for example, is a great thing, but people use it as paper and misunderstand it's purpose and meaning in life. I am guessing that is what Emerson meant because he was a real enthusiat for life and nature, so if you put two and two together. I really liked self reliance and i liked the way Bro read it he made it flow like it should of. I know when i read it, it didn't sound like that in my head. I really liked the essay and i thought it was very insiteful.

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Imitation is Suicide. There have been many times in my life where I have wanted to be exactly like someone else. A time where i admire some fellow classmate, a friend so much that i want to be exactly who they are. However after reading and processing what this quote meant, i came to realize that  **imitation __is__** **//in fact// suicide** to who i really am and who god made me out to be. By acting like someone else, there is just two people exactly the same, and the uniqueness that you once had, is no longer. There is nothing else that makes //you//, **you**! I cannot think of a specific time where I have imitated someone; however there has been many times where I have wanted to **be** someone else. There have also been times where I say to myself “I hate my life.” These words and thoughts that I think up are killing my identity, killing the individual God wants me to be! I have looked at different people and many times i find myself putting __me__ down. I may be complimenting someone else, but shouldn't I be happy with who i am, what I look like, and how far I have come in my life as an individual?! It is ok to look at other people, and admire the ones around you. Though, don’t forget who you truly were made to be; the person you truly **want** to be. If you forget who you genuinely are, then you are killing your whole identity; and there is absolutely nothing good about losing yourself. 1201825782

envy is ignorance-Self Reliance This is one of the bumper sticker quotes that I brought into class. There were many that I liked. But I didn't fully understand this one, so I decided to look into it more. At first I didn't really agree with this statement. I didn't really understand it that well. I decided to look up what ignorance meant.

//**ig·no·rance** n. The condition of being uneducated, unaware, or uninformed. ~__ The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language __//

Once I read what ignorance really means I started to understand it better and agree with it more. To me it is saying that you shouldn't envy someone because you don't really know them or the meaning of what they are doing. It is telling us that envy is bad. I think that a lot of people envy someone or something, it is something everyone does. Most of the time that we envy someone or something we aren't really familiar with it, and thats why we find interest in it. I think this makes us "unaware and uninformed" just like the definition says. I really like this bumper sticker quote. But looking back at it now he might not be saying that all envy is bad, he is just telling us that when we have envy, it is ignorant. 1202966677

Imitation is Suicide.

This bumper sticker statement really caught my eye. It applies alot today in our world today. It means that when a person in not being themselves and imitating somebody else it is suicide. Now i don't think it really means suicide in a physical way but more in a spiritual way. You are killing your on uniquenes and special qualities only you can shore when you decide to imitate another. In the world today there are so many pressures to be perfect and not to make the wrong moves. So people now don't try to be different they just try to blend in with the crowd. So i totaly agree with this statement and that people should be themselves and not somebody else. 1203139788 