Ralph Waldo Emerson, from "Heroism"

"The heroic soul does not sell its justice and its nobleness. It does not ask to dine nicely, and to sleep warm. The essence of greatness is the perception that virtue is enough. Poverty is its ornament. It does not need plenty, and can very well abide its loss.

But that which takes my fancy most, in the heroic class, is the good-humor and hilarity they exhibit. It is a height to which common duty can very well attain, to suffer and to dare with solemnity. But these rare souls set opinion, success, and life, at so cheap a rate, that they will not soothe their enemies by petitions, or the show of sorrow, but wear their own habitual greatness."

Emerson's quote regarding the essence of greatness strikes a strong, resonating chord. And, it can be taken as a report on material posession or fortitude of the giving soul. However you relate, I feel that it's an immensely important concept. It's infinitely altrustic yet self-satisfying. If there is a gentle god, this embodies his lessons without myth or structure, and more so than anything that can be learned while under the umbrella of pious duty. Such duty and instruction invites the bending of any goodness around one's individual desires.

Can you imagine a community that abides by virtue first and foremost? Start from this bedrock and forget antiqued story-telling. Take away the crutch of religious ceremony and all of it's social context. Relieve the pressure that innately couples belief in an unknown and unlikely afterlife, and subscribe to an unflinching, unyielding push for the virtuous present. It will translate into greatness within your life, and what more can you control?

Do you think that a book of sensational anecdotes edited by the power-wielding men of the time has more value that an amiable spirit? Do you think a god would be so selfish as to think that universal virtue must come through the jaded teaching of a book or fellow man? It is no longer honorable to be naive. Greatness in life is not the sheepish following of mysticism...it is being virtuous without instruction to be so.