Reading for "lustres"

I'm not much of a reader. 

You couldn't tell by my office -- which is full of books that I've picked up along the way and have, admittedly, only flipped through.   So, why in the world would I pick up another bag of books at the Willard Library books sale?

                                              Carving of a wise owl outside Willard Library

I don't know.  We all have our sicknesses.

Willard's final day of their "rare and special book sale" was an opportunity to fill a bag up with as many books as you could stuff into it for $20.   What I came home with was a twelve-volume set of Ralph Waldo Emerson's writings.  This collection is copyrighted 1903 and 1904.  Originally marked at $300 (and seen online form more), I figured that, if nothing else, might be a good investment for those that have to clean out my crap in a few years. 

Emerson, I've always found, is WAY too intellectual for me.  But, I found the introduction interesting.  In it, the person who compiled and organized all the prose and poems, explains Emerson and books.  Emerson believed books should be read, not for the information they contained, but for inspiration, or what he called "lustres."

I may not get Emerson, but Emerson, it turns out, gets me!

"Lustres!"   What an awesome concept. 

So, truth be told, I will never read all the volumes.  But, if nothing else, I've gleaned a bit of lustre from Mr. Emerson.

Oh, and he also gives young scholars these two maxims, 1. Sit alone and, when possible, sit alone in Nature and listen to the Universal Mind.  2.  Keep a journal:  pay so much honor to the visits of Truth to your mind as to record them.  Journals, he wrote, are his savings-bank.  "I grow richer because I have somewhere to deposit my earnings . . . " 

Advice well worth the $20. 

Carpe diem Life
David Kuhn