Transcendentalism- is a literary and philosophical movement, asserting the existence of an ideal spiritual reality that transcends the empirical and scientific and is knowable through intuition.
What?! That was exactly what my reaction was like the first time I read that. Even know when I read it all I see is blah blah blah! So I have decided to explain this so that all of us non-English majors can better understand.
To me, transcendentalism is a philosophy of life. I"m not really sure if I have a philosophy on life, but I know how I want to live my life.
I believe that in the end we all chose the paths that out lives went down. You pretty much create your own history. Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, "It is the harder, because you will find those who think they know what is your duty better than you know it." .
I guess if I did have a philosophy on life it would consist of a few things: don't do something unless you think it is right, live your life by what you believe in, and be compassionate and understanding.
There have been many situations for doing what I think is right. Just the other day my friend and I were in the cafeteria. While we were standing there in line she was telling me a story about this kid. Everyone knows who he is and makes fun of him all the time, but I never thought one of my friends could be like that. Well, soon enough she starting making fun of him and laughing so loud. Pretty soon the two kids in front of us started to join her. They were laughing hysterically. At that point I finally spoke out. I know that she thought it was ok for her to make fun of him simply because everyone else always does, but that didn't make it right to me. Henry David Thoreau once said, "The only obligation which I have a right to assume is to do at any time what I think right." I think if we all lived by those 20 simply words there would be so much less drama and bad things happening.