New Year’s Eve with Poet Ralph Waldo Emerson

Just when I needed a New Years resolution, you delivered it, Mary Jo.

Thanks for digging deep into the annals of Ralph Waldo Emerson’s “Life & Times” and delivering my 2026 New Year’s Resolution.

“Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year. He is rich who owns the day, and no one owns the day who allows it to be invaded with fret and anxiety. Finish every day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt, crept in. Forget them as soon as you can, tomorrow is a new day; begin it well and serenely, with too high a spirit to be cumbered with your old nonsense. This new day is too dear, with its hopes and expectations, to waste a moment on yesterday”.

Mary Jo, your undergrad degree in Literature serves you (and me) well.

But, the challenge ??? Not just Seeing the wisdom in Emerson’s words, but Living that wisdom. For me (as a voice of one), the final ingredient that allows us humans to live Emerson’s sound advice is (1) to “Love” and “Forgive” everyone and (2) most importantly, “Love” and “Forgive” ourselves… despite all the “high-bar” expectations that have been heaped upon all of us in childhood (by the Nuns, Priests, Teachers, Parents, Aunts, Uncles, Mentors, etc).

It is a delicate balance in sorting out the high expectations visited upon us in childhood with the legitimate expectations we should carry through life (on our emotional shoulders). As we age, I think it becomes easier to see what is a legitimate expectation and what is not.

“Perfection” is not a legitimate expectation. Seeking perfection is a self-defeating illusion. Perfection was not in the cards for the “mythical” Adam and Eve, and it’s not in the cards for any of the descendants of Humanity. As Alexander Pope said, “To err is human.”
Winning each and every battle is also not a legitimate expectation. It too is a self-defeating illusion. Hall of Fame hitters in baseball fail much more than they succeed. In 10 at-bats, baseball Hall of Famers (on average) fail 7 times… carrying a lifetime .300 batting average. Translated, those who succeed only 3 out of 10 times at bat, are baseball Hall of Famers.

Then, if I may ask… what is a “legitimate” expectation ??? I suspect, a “legitimate expectation” is… “not to back down” from Life’s “necessary” tasks. Or, as Teddy Roosevelt said, “Even if you lose, you lose while daring greatly so that your place will never be amongst those cold and timid souls who know neither defeat nor victory.” (It’s Not the Critic Who Counts aka The Man in the Arena). Ditto for the Detroit, Irish, Capuchin Priest, Father Solanus Casey, who said, “Do not pray for tasks equal to your abilities. Pray for abilities equal to the tasks that… God has given you. Then, there will be no miracle. You will be the Miracle.” That way of thinking, that conceptualization (if you will) helps to bridge the gap between… being psychologically haunted by impossible expectations while (at the same time) understanding the wisdom of, “You can’t win ‘em all.”

As a thirty-something, year old lawyer, I once tried a Product Liability case in Federal Court, against a non-stop, big law firm and… against all the odds. I won. I celebrated with my 9th-grade educated Father and we had a few cocktails and some big, blah, blah, blah talk. At the end of the evening, my Father said, “I’m proud of you”– the ultimate imprimatur every kid yearns to hear from a Father. Then my Father drew near and quietly whispered, “proud of you… not because you won, repeat, not because you won, but because you took on the battle and persevered through the trial with one part discipline, one part fear and one part self doubt. It’s the will to undertake the task and it’s the staying power and the effort expended in the undertaking that makes me proud of you, and, whether you won or lost… does not change that.”

What does this have to do with Mary Jo and Ralph Waldo Emerson and my New Year’s resolution of 2026 ??? As a voice of one, I think the only way I can succeed in my, Ralph Waldo Emerson, New Year’s Resolution (of 2026) is… to strive to love myself (and others) and strive to forgive myself (and others)… when I don’t to live up to my own expectations. Or, as Alexander Pope says, “To err is human, to forgive is Divine.“

The Orange Man would read this piece, shake his head and ask, “WTF is this Leftist Lauck talking about” ??? But, that’s the very same Orangeman who is mentally and emotionally disabled by his own, long-standing, narcissistic love of himself, and he hasn’t a clue how to break out of his own, self-confining shackles of negative energy … as he still (all these years after childhood), desperately, seeks out (in adulthood) the “acceptance” and “flattery” denied him as a kid. That lack of acceptance in childhood, has left a psychological hole and unquenchable thirst of nagging “self doubt” and “insecurity” … probably, engendered by a combination of the wrong Father (Fred Trump) and the wrong lawyer (Roy Cohn) whose legacy is (to be kind) “a scoundrel, totally lacking in integrity.”

The Orange Man’s narcissistic love of self creates his own, paranoid perception that he is the “victim” and that everyone else is after him. That is not loving one’s self. That is doubting one’s self. That is (as the Orangeman routinely demonstrates) a self loathing that makes it impossible for the Orangeman to move on from childhood by loving or forgiving others… the other man or the other woman. Love One Another

I have often said that the “Right” is wrong in their fundamental belief of “winners and losers” and their ultimate goal and destination of separating themselves, financially and socially, from the socio-economic status of the rest of mankind. I have often said that the Left is Right in their “analysis” that, “We are all in it together” … and the only destination for mankind is Death, after which we go ??? Who knows where ??? The Sendoff

So bring it on Ralphie Boy Emerson. I embrace your lavish expectations for 2026.