Ralph Waldo Emerson observed how the ultimate goal of a reader is to become a “Golconda” – someone “who runs everything through a sieve and keeps the nuggets.”
Emerson was referring to the famous Golconda mines in India where miners would dig until hitting ground water and then sieve out the dirt until identifying the diamonds.
“To Golconda” is a helpful image and charge – to sieve out the dirt until all that is left is what is valuable and worth keeping.
This concept can be applied to reading, but also – if we think about it – to anything in our lives including our emotions.
Every day we experience all kinds of feelings and we can, if we choose, Golconda our emotions until all that remains is worth keeping. We can Golconda out of the muddy water of our lives joy and happiness, peace and contentment.
On Emotions 