Emma Goldman and The Law of Attraction

I am nearing the end of the 550 page autobiography of Emma Goldman, Living My Life. It ranks up there as a book that has enlightened and intrigued me in many areas; politics, ideology, history, geography, even, the Law of Attraction. A supporter of Emma was Helen Keller, how interesting is that? In 1919, Emma and her longtime friend (ideologic partner) Alexander Berkman were deported to Russia, where her ideals were sorely tried and tested. It begged of her the question, How do ideals measure up to the messiness of life? 

In her beloved Russia, the place she had hoped to be, to be a part of the revolution, the starvation and hypocrisy she found in city after city, made her feel, as though “caught in a trap” (p. 485). I think it is a place where many of us come to eventually, wondering how our ideals actually play out in our lives. Are we living for a cause, or or we living? Can we balance our beliefs with compassion, and also, can we balance our striving with simply living, being present? The older I get, the more I choose being present, leaving ideologies to others, or perhaps growing into the ideology that the present, and those I love, are the most important things to me.  

It is interesting to think about Emma’s life through the lens of the Law of Attraction. The Law of Attraction is that our thoughts have power and energy and bring about the life we desire. We ‘attract’ into our life what we think about. I believe that Emma’s life is a good indicator of the power of the Law of Attraction. Whether of not her ideology held out for her, whether or not she was able to reconcile her idealistic aspirations with the reality she found in revolutionary Russia, she did travel the world with the power of her thoughts, and of her ideas. 

Emma always had money to bring into her life all that she thought about and hoped to do. At one point, even, as she and Beckman were preparing to travel by train throughout Russia to collect important documents to track the history of the revolution, Emma found herself in the basement storage rooms of the Winter Palace, one of the homes of the recently assassinated Czar. She writes, “Room after room was stacked to the ceiling with utensils and plate, thickly covered with dust, mute witnesses to the glory that was no more. And there I was, rummaging in that magnificence for dishes for our expedition” (p. 453). 

How you might wonder, would an immigrant to America, exiled back to Russia end up looting the Czar’s palace? It is incredible, and I am fascinated by the incredible in life. I am also fascinated by the interplay of belief and our thoughts and actions. It is especially interesting in our materialistic culture to think about the accumulation of wealth. Here is a another quote that speaks to the relative value of material things in our lives, and I think of the necessity of letting things come into our lives, and trusting that we will always have what we need, and especially, what we want; “Everything in life is relative, looming in value according to one’s necessity” (p. 461).