YOUR LIFE 1 John Hartz Professor Derek Haderlie FD Engligh 201 15 June 2012 Your Life Has No Value

Each age it is found, must write its own books; or rather, each generation for the next succeeding (p.80). Emerson (2004), with outstanding clarity and insight expone the idea that without the continual renewal and refreshing of knowledge and information, true progress ceases to be possible. We cannot dwell only in the knowledge of the past and expect to be ready and able to meet the present, much less the future. We must learn from the past but not live in it. Accumulation of knowledge is noteworthy, but as McCullough (2011) said, The value of information, facts, figures, and the like, depends on what we make of it (p. 247). To have meaning, to have value, information, facts, figures (McCullough, 2011, p. 247) need to be acted upon. Emerson (2004) continued in The American Scholar to say, Action is with the scholar subordinate, but it is essential. Without it, he is not yet man. Without it, thought can never ripen into truth (p.83) .Truth is discovered through imagining connections between what we have learned, and observed in the world around us, and then working to define and explain, or to expose the reality of those connections. Bronowski (2011) referring to Copernicus and his theory said, His first step was a leap of imagination to lift himself from the earth, and put himself wildly speculatively into the sun (p. 51). These imagined connections are not discovered or verified or found in any other way than through action. We must embrace these ideas if we wish ourselves to be successful, purposeful individuals. Without these principles of education, imagination, and action, your life has no value.

YOUR LIFE 2 To be a person whose life has value, you must seek education, you must gain foundationary knowledge. Through study and experience we gain a foundation, or rather if you prefer a series of foundations. Pick up some literary theory, study out genetics, and explore the civil war, if you do, youll find a variety of foundations have formed in your mind. This is the beginning of being useful, the beginning of being productive, of having value. Bronowski (2011) said, Science is nothing else than the search to discover unity in the wild variety of nature or more exactly, in the variety of our experience (p. 53). To be able to recognize this unity in our searches, we must have a basic understanding of patterns to look for. This basic understanding of patterns is our foundationary knowledge. We are responsible to build this foundation. Foundations do not assemble themselves nor are they are just found. Foundations are made. We must pick up books; we must learn what others have seen before us. We must observe, we must see and know the world around us. But this is not enough. No doubt you know people with a smattering of knowledge spread over a thousand topics, and they are traveling in the right direction. They are beginning to have value; they have foundations. But to have value you must continue to build. To have value, you cannot be satisfied with just foundations. You need do something, you need to act. Action is an essential principle of having value. You must do something with your knowledge, something with what you observe of the world around you. Action is building on foundationary knowledge, making something useful with what youve learned and observed. Action is exploring and discovering and experimenting and doing. Once we see how things work we must expone as Emerson. Once we see how something could be, we are obligated to act to make it so. Knowledge without action is to be a book on a shelf. Emerson (2004) said, Only so much do I know as I have lived (p. 83). I say, unless I am exploring and seeking to explain the

YOUR LIFE 3 things others say is true or the things I think are true, my life has no meaning. I say that to live is to discover truth. Without active and intense efforts to discover truth, truth is impossible to find, and without the discovery or rediscovery of truth, life becomes stagnant and loses its value. Nothing new or old is ever made or explained or found or proven or known, without action. Action however, without imagination, is to be a machine. Imagination directs our minds and drives our thoughts beyond what is known, beyond what is established, beyond our foundations. Imagination can spark action, to encourage us to prove theories, to discover what really is. Bronowski (2011) warns that without imagination, meaning in life, the inherent value of life, would decrease, If the task of the painter were to copy for men what they see, the critic could make only a single judgment; either that the copy is right or that it is wrong (p. 55) The painter creates art which highlights the connections and intersections of truths they observe in the world. The artist paints truths so plainly that only the most close-minded refuse to see it. The writer imagines a story underlining the subtleties of relationships, of hardships, and of joy, so that all men might see and know truth. To have value we must be able to connect the foundations we have made in our minds. Imagination enables us to see the connections that bind our world together and order the chaos that would otherwise surely be. The act of fusion is the creative act. (Bronowski, 2011, p. 51). It is the act of fusing knowledge with imagination that allows new ideas to be born. Imagination is the essential tool of the creator. Through action we seek to confirm and discover the connections weve imagined. Imagination gives our actions depth and purpose. Every man should use his time and energy exploring his education, imagining what could be, and then going out to discover how close the idea born of education and imagination is to truth. Together, education, action, and imagination are most powerful tools of creation.

YOUR LIFE 4 Education, action, and imagination are greater than just terrestrial ideals. Brigham Young (1996) is quoted as saying, The object of our existence is to learn (p. 228). A more reliable source of truth was never found than that of a prophet of God. We must learn, we must gain knowledge, and then we must act. Doctrine and Covenants teaches For of him unto whom much is given, much is required; and he who sins against the greater light, shall receive the greater condemnation (Smith, 1981, p. 151). We are commanded by God to act and do as much as we know, or have learned, or have been taught. The allegories of the olive tree, of the wise servants, of the mustard seed and of the regular seed are all used to teach eternal principles and all require imagination. The use of allegories in the scriptures is evidence that God understands the use of imagination in progress, in learning, and in the discovery of truth. These principles of education, action, and imagination are eternal in scope, celestial in nature, and as we learn them here we will have so much advantage in the world to come (Smith, 1981, p. 265). The soul active sees absolute truth; and utters truth, or creates. (Emerson, 2004, p. 80) The powers of creation here on earth are inseparably connected to the principles of education, action, and imagination I have defined and declared. To put it simply, without the foundation of education or knowledge, gained through study or experience, we have no grounds to imagine properly how the world works. Without that foundation we have no boundaries to inspire us to ask, Whats on the other side? And then nursing that curiosity into a desire to know, we scale the impossible wall, and shine light into the dark unknown to comprehend it, to see if it looks like we imagined it. This never ending cycle of wondering what is just outside our range of vision, our understanding and keeps us going, keeps us moving, keeps us progressing. Bronowski (2011) says that order must be discovered and, in a deep sense, it must be created (p. 52). Discovery is a form of creation, and to live is to discover or create. Not that

YOUR LIFE 5 discovery is creation, but that as truth are discovered, new foundations are made, for yourself, and for others. If you desire your life to have value, you must seek education, act, and imagine. Without this, there is no discovery or creation, and without creation there is no life.

YOUR LIFE 6 References Bronowski, J. (2011) The Creative mind. In D. Hammond, M.K. Hartvigsen, A. Papworth & R.Seamons (Eds.), The way of wisdom (pp. 50-58). Rexburg, ID: BYU-Idaho. Retrieved date, from http://ilearn.byui.edu. Emerson, R. W. (2004). The American scholar. In R.W. Emerson (Ed.), Nature - Addresses And Lectures(pp. 76-110). Whitefish, Montana: Kessinger Publishing, LLC. McCullough, D. (2011) The Love of learning. In D. Hammond, M.K. Hartvigsen, A. Papworth & R.Seamons (Eds.), The way of wisdom (pp. 246-249). Rexburg, ID: BYU-Idaho. Retrieved date, from http://ilearn.byui.edu. Smith, J. (1981). The doctrine and covenants of the church of jesus christ of latter-day saints. Salt Lake City, UT: Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Young, B. (2006). Discourse by President Brigham Young. In G. Watt & D. Evans (Eds.), Journal of Discourses (p. 228). Salt Lake City, UT: Deseret Book.