posted on November 25, 2009 12:45:13 PM new
A good friend sent this recently, and I'm sharing it with all of you. (My English Lit class in college actually did study Whitman's "Leaves of Grass," but I was undoubtedly too young to appreciate it.)
"My best friend died last week. He was a good man--wealthy, frugal, generous, witty, more Buddhist than Christian, a worthy opponent in any argument. At his funeral on Saturday, his wife had a favorite bit of Walt Whitman included in the bulletin:"
From “Leaves of Grass”
“This is what you shall do: love the earth and sun and the animals, despise riches, give alms to everyone that asks, stand up for the stupid and crazy, devote your income and labor to others, hate tyrants, argue not concerning God, have patience and indulgence toward the people…go freely with uneducated persons and with the young and with the mothers of families, read these leaves in the open air every season of every year of your life, reexamine all you have been told at school or church or in any book, dismiss whatever insults your own soul; and then your very flesh will be a great poem and have the richest fluency, not only in its words but in the silent lines of its lips and face and between the lashes of your eyes and in every motion and joint of your body.”
_____________________
"Here in America we are descended in blood and in spirit from revolutionists and rebels - men and women who ***dared to dissent*** from accepted doctrine. As their heirs, ***may we never confuse honest dissent with disloyal subversion."*** --Eisenhower
[ edited by roadsmith on Nov 25, 2009 12:45 PM ]
