"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 the crazy, devote your income and labor to others, hate tyranny, argue not concerning God, have patience and indulgence towards people, take your hat off to nothing known or unknown or to any man or number of men, go freely with powerful 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, re-examine all you have been told at school or church or in any book, dismiss whatever insults your soul, and your flesh shall 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… You shall go directly to the creation. Your trust shall master the trust of everything you touch… and shall master all attachment."
— Walt Whitman, "The Oath of The Poet"
I don't know what it means to "master all attachment", but when I'm a grown-up, I imagine I will understand it then...and perhaps I'll even desire it...you know...that whole mastering attachments thing...but until then, I'm going to go freely with the mothers of families, cause they're cool, smart and funny and I always learn from moms...all kinds of moms...always.
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3 comments:
And we learn from you! This was beautiful,mom! Thanks!
xoxo-emmy
You teach us in many ways, mom...mostly by example.
Well, thanks to each of you...Em, I love your momminess, you are royal in your ability to create with God...ROYAL...and Eli, I count you as a mom...and that's one high and mighty compliment son....mighty high...and of course, I already think of the abbot as a mom...look at what she does all day-making lungs, creating heart chambers, forming brain tissue-AND ALL OF IT DOUBLED, that girl never stops!!!
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