The Wisdom of Walt Whitman

Last Saturday I began writing this post about the wisdom I have found in the words of Walt Whitman. The more I wrote and deleted I realized that it is best simply to share a bit of Mr. Whitman's wisdom. Being just a little wise myself, that is what I have done.

I Sit and Look Out

by

Walt Whitman

I sit and look out upon all the sorrows of the world, and upon all oppression and shame;

I hear secret convulsive sobs from young men, at anguish with themselves, remorseful after deeds done;

I see, in low life, the mother misused by her children, dying, neglected, gaunt, desperate;

I see the wife misused by her husband—I see the treacherous seducer of young women;

I mark the ranklings of jealousy and unrequited love, attempted to be hid—I see these sights on the earth;

I see the workings of battle, pestilence, tyranny—I see martyrs and prisoners;

I observe a famine at sea—I observe the sailors casting lots who shall be kill’d, to preserve the lives of the rest;

I observe the slights and degradations cast by arrogant persons upon laborers, the poor, and upon negroes, and the like;

All these—All the meanness and agony without end, I sitting, look out upon,

See, hear, and am silent.

“This is what you shall do: love the earth and sun, and animals, despise riches, give alms to every one 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 towards the people, take off your hat to nothing known or unknown, or to any man or number of men; go freely with the powerful uneducated persons, and with the young, and mothers, of families: read these leaves in the open air every season of every year of your life: re-examine all you have been told at school or church, or in any books, and dismiss whatever insults your soul.” ~ Walt Whitman

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P.S. ~ My occupational therapist came by today and taught me how to take a shower. I didn't think that I needed the lesson, but I did.

Tomorrow the nurse practioner and the physical therapist are coming to my house. Since my hospitalization, I've had more visitors to this house that the entire 8 years I've lived here.