|
About This Author
My name is Joy, and I love to write.
Why poetry, here? Because poetry uplifts its writer, and if she is lucky enough, her readers, too. Around us, so many objects abound to write about. Once a poet starts with a smallest, most trivial object, he shall discover that his pen will spill out what is most delicate or most majestic hidden inside him. Since the classics sometimes dealt with lofty subjects with a lofty language, a person with poetry in his soul may incline to emulate that. That is understandable. Poetry does that to a person: it enlarges the soul and gives it wings. Yet, to really soar, a poet needs to take off from the ground.
 
|
Daily Cascade
Since my old blog "Everyday Canvas "  became overfilled, here's a new one. This new blog item will continue answering prompts, the same as the old one.
Cool water cascading to low ground
To spread good will and hope all around.
January 26, 2026 at 2:59pm January 26, 2026 at 2:59pm
| |
Prompt:
"Great men are they who see that spiritual is stronger than any material force - that thoughts rule the world."
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Do thoughts really rule the world as Emerson claims? What do you think?
--------
I doubt that anything created can rule the world on its own, alone. Certainly not the thoughts, and not by themselves. They are, however, the invisible forces behind much of what we people deal with. Those forces, such as actions of people, money, weapons, machines, natural resources, and now. artificial intelligence shape history and our time, and they almost always have power over our fears, hopes, and ideals.
But then, I have to okay Emerson's point, too. Don't revolutions begin as arguments about justice? Scientific findings as hypotheses? My sons' rebellions, before having their own apartments?
Likewise, the push for women’s rights, the abolition of slavery, and the spread of civil liberties were driven by changing moral ideas. This meant thoughts acted as architects whose designs later took concrete forms.
So, the way I see it, thoughts alone don't and can't rule the world. They need people, luck, institutions, circumstances, and resources. Take economic crises, political pressures, military power, for example. They always have ideas and thoughts behind them. Yet, history is full of people whose visions were ignored because the world around them was not prepared to change.
Then, Emerson’s emphasis on the spiritual may be pointing to the way how we humans are choosing to respond to what we understand. Those choices can lead to resilience, reform, or worse, domination. So, I think, thoughts alone may not rule the world, but they may influence how the world is ruled.
.
|
© Copyright 2026 Joy (UN: joycag at Writing.Com). All rights reserved.
Joy has granted InkSpot.Com, its affiliates and its syndicates non-exclusive rights to display this work.
|
Comment 
