Early last year, I decided that it was time for me to downsize. First came weeks of weighing the final decision, then weeks of preparing to leave the 2400-square foot, two-garage house I’d lived in for twenty years, and then the months of becoming physically and emotionally acclimated to the 612-square foot apartment that had become my home.
In addition to the family treasures retained from the previous hoardings of my mother (and me), I had all the paper accumulations of a teacher and writer. Thanks to the clever shelving solutions of the folks who organized my move, I was able to cling to about half of my 1,000+ collection of books. My writing-related files, however, were reduced to a handful of boxes of papers, DVDs and flash drives. Lost in the move were floppies that contained reasearch and manuscripts from the 90s, some of which I find myself searching for in the hope that some of them may lurk in an unscrutinized box.
Things in the Saddle
As I mourn my lost possessions, lines from Emerson’s “Ode, Inscribed to William H. Channing” run through my mind:
The horseman serves the horse,
The neat-herd serves the neat,
The merchant serves the purse,
The eater serves his meat;
‘Tis the day of the chattel
Web to weave, and corn to grind;
Things are in the saddle,
And ride mankind.
We think we own things, but in so many ways, our things own us.
Parting with possessions
Among my lost floppies is, I’m pretty sure, the manuscript of a juvenile novel now out of print that I would like to republish on my own. Alas, c’est du passé. It is in the past and all I can do—have the privilege of doing—is to look forward to writing more novels before I leave my 612-square feet for a smaller abode yet.
Notes on the poem
The man honored with Emerson’s ode, William H. Channing (1810—1884), was a Unitarian minister. An early advocate of women’s suffrage, he inspired Susan B. Anthony in her work. According to Elizabeth Cady Stanton, “[Anthony] first found words to express her convictions in listening to Rev. William Henry Channing, whose teaching had a lasting spiritual influence upon her.”
Troubled by the economic inquality that is the inevitable outcome of unfettered capitalism, Channing also advocated Christian socialism, which sees capitalism as contrary to the teachings of Jesus. Perhaps the most amazing fact about Channing is that, in 1863 and 1864, he was the Chaplain of the United States House of Representatives!
You can read the entire poem here.
RE: The neat-herd serves the neat— neat is another word for cow.