“People wish to be settled; only in so far as they are unsettled is there any hope for them.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson

 “People wish to be settled; only in so far as they are unsettled is there any hope for them” - Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882). “Circles,” Essays: First Series, 1841

- What is it to be 'settled'? At first, I thought of it as something like 'being happy with where you are in life', but I think that is too simple of an explanation. We can be happy where we are in life, and still be looking for change. By this, I mean that we can be happy with where we are 'right now', and yet also be aiming for something better in the future, some change in our status, some new ability, or some greater vision. We can be happy, and unsettled. By 'settled' then, I think I mean something like 'happy to stay here'. That is, if we imagine someone who is settled in their life, then we can imagine someone who is at a place where they will stay for the rest of their life, or at least until something outside of their control comes to knock them away. This is like an old grandparent, or someone who has lead the same near-do-well lifestyle for the last twenty years. They are people who are, if not absolutely and ecstatic about where they are and how they are living, are at least not planning to move any time soon. They don't need to change, and they don't want to change. 

This is something I see when I visit some of the people I know from my hometown, when I go back and visit them after a few years - that they are in the same place, doing the same thing. I feel the same about myself too, sometimes, that my life hasn't really gone anywhere - this isn't necessarily bad, but it does lead to me to ask 'have I not gone anywhere because I failed, or because I don't want to? '. Am I a settled person who thinks he is unsettled, or an unsettled person who thinks he is settled? The difference seems important, because of what this quote suggests. It is such a terrible feeling to look back on your life and feel that you have failed to accomplish all that you wished to, or much of anything at all, really. It is another sort of feeling to look back at your life and feel pride in all that you have accomplished, regardless of what success it did or did not bring you. 

We hope to be unsettled, to be ready to change, and to be aiming at a brighter future and a more memorable past. We hope so, because we can see the future - we can see our future. We imagine what it will be like to be us, many years from now, looking back and remembering who we are. We wish to be settled because we do not want to think that this is it, here we are, we have arrived at our final destination. Hope for the saving of ourselves form despair lies in the possibility of unhappiness, the willingness to dare, and the intention to become better than we are. 

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