Notes on a Scandalous Life

I've been reading Jean-Jacques Rousseau's Reveries of the Solitary Walker for a paper that's due later this week. Now, let me be clear about this: I am a 50/50 Rousseau fan. I agree with him, philosophically, on many levels (Deism, for example, and the all anti-church-and-state bits), but his sexism pretty much prevents me from totally joining the cult of the Enlightenment.

Anyway, I was reading along, minding my own business, when I came upon this passage:

"...having resolved myself to reconstitute a herbarium more complete than my previous one, until such time as I can collect all the plants of the seashore and the Apls, and the flowerings of all the trees of the Indies, I am making a modest beginning with chickweed, chervil, borage and groudsel I botnize learnedly at my birdcage, and every new blade of grass that I spot makes me say to myself with satisfaction: 'There's one more plant anyhow.'"

Basically, once-upon-a-time, Rousseau had quite the collection of plants, but, for some reason, they were now all gone (In case you didn't know, a lot of the Enlightenment thinkers also dabbled in science, as well as philosophy.). Now, seeking to rebuild t, he had to start from the ground up. Rather than adopting a "this will take foreeever" mentality, he began, cheerily, right at the beginning.

Sometimes, I feel like I'm in Rousseau's position. I want to collect all the flowerings of all the trees of the Indies, but, right now, I'm just muddling through my BA at Texas A&M. And that's frustrating. But, someday, I'll get there. I just need to keep collecting blades of grass... and start turning in homework assignments on time. Sigh.