You used to hear a lot about Campho-Phenique.  It seems like once upon time, every other commercial slot on TV was about  Campho-Phenique.  “Campho-Phenique helps to treat cold sores and relieves pain & itching associated with insect bites, scrapes and minor burn.”

The guy who invented it was names Charles Emerson.  He had a famous older brother too.  But we’ll get to that.

Oh… Those things you don’t hear about any more… but like me …. you think about them all the time.  You probably just thought about a jar of Campho-Phenique the other day.

Nonetheless.  Here is another one I haven’t heard in a while.  Transcendentalism.  It was a  philosophical movement that developed in the late 1820s.  Mostly, this occurred in the Eastern region of the United States.   It was sort of…. as a protest against the general state of intellectualism and spirituality.

In fact…. the doctrine of the Unitarian church as taught at Harvard Divinity School….. was of big-wiggy concern.

So… basically…. the transcendentalists’ core beliefs were all about the inherent goodness of both people and nature. Now… that lines right up with me, I’ll have to say.

Let’s call them TDs for short.  TDs believe that society and its institutions—particularly organized religion and political parties—ultimately corrupt the purity of the individual.  GUESS WHAT.  This lines up with me too.

I won’t go into great detail here, but one of Transcendentalism’s main dudes was Ralph.  Chuck’s older brother.  Yep.  As in Ralphy Waldo Emerson.

Young Mr. Ralph Waldo Emerson gradually moved away from the religious and social beliefs of his contemporaries.  He broke away from the bunch of them and began formulating and expressing the philosophy of Transcendentalism.  Of course,this all came forth in his 1836 essay, Nature. Which rocks.

Emerson is one of those people I wish I could meet, once the Time Machine gets up and running.  I just think he was one of the most incredible minds in history,  with a spiritual reckoning.  I like this guy.

Emerson’s work influenced his contemporaries, such as Walt Whitman and Henry David Thoreau.  It also influenced thinkers and writers all around the world …. right down to the present. Guys like Nietzsche.  And on and on.

There is little disagreement that Emerson was one of the most influential writers of 19th-century America.  Maybe the most.

He, and his words, and thoughts…. were yet another gift we have been given… by being a part of this this life… here on earth… in this time.

And the part about his younger brother Charles…. well… he might have had a cold sore once,  but I am bull-crapping you about Campho-Phenique.  I just had that word on my brain tonight and had to write about it.  The rest is true though.

The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall. – RWE

What lies behind you and what lies in front of you, pales in comparison to what lies inside of you.  – RWE

Nature always wears the colors of the spirit.  – RWE

To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment. – RWE

Once you make a decision, the universe conspires to make it happen. – RWE

Geez, that cold sore looks like it hurts. I have something for you…. – CE