Resist Much. Obey Little

I've found a lot of comfort in the books I've read during my service.  They are too numerous to count and I wouldn't want to boast about the quantity without mention of quality anyway.  Needless to say, reading and reflection have been a crucial element of my personal time in my community.  It was the reason I got involved with the library.

As I was loading up the last bag to be taken to my Community Library for donation today, I stumbled upon Whitman's Preface to Leaves of Grass.  While "Leaves of Grass" itself is immense a quick scan of "The Preface to Leaves of Grass" offered me some words that although read before, this time around had particular resonance. I realize these particular words may be overused and in fact I remember a roommate of mine in college even had a poster with the verse, but regardless I don't think have been cheapened and I certainly don't think they ring any less true.  Whitman writes:

"This is what you shall do; Love the earth and sun and the 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 toward the people, take off your hat 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 own soul, and your very 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."


 I think, as I slowly take my backward steps towards a country I once knew well and shared aspirations and ideals with, I will keep these words in mind and never give up the process of re-examination and struggling to maintain a great poem.