'Every day is the best day'

 “Write it on your heart that everyday is the best day in the year.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson 

 

Emerson was born on May 25, 1803, the same day the Lewis & Clark Expedition was commissioned toexplore the Louisiana Purchase.   Thus, as the Corps ofDiscovery was created to explore American frontiers, this great writer and thinkerwas born to a similar pathway, only toward discovery of the written word.

He was the first American to advocate for Americans to create their own writing style and not just copy that of their forebears from other parts of the world.   He also was one of the first writers to keep journals.  His lifelong extensive journals and notes, published in 16 volumes by Harvard University Press, are considered to be his key literary works – even though that was not his intent. 
 “I just wanted to maintain a record of the things that were important to my life,” he wrote.   As it turned out, they are things that have influenced generations of writers both in their content and the practice of journaling itself. 
A staunch supporter of education for girls and women, he helped found a Massachusetts school for girls.  And, from the mid-1840s on, he was a national leader of the abolitionist movement.  
“You cannot do a kindness too soon," he said, "for you never know how soon it will be too late.”