Monday 16 March 2015

Do This:



For many years, I kept numerous journals about life in general and in particular.  Now, there are no writings to hand down to my kids, as they were lost.  This morning, I was trying to form a simple guiding statement for my children to understand, and remembered a passage from the preface of Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman.  My writings may not have been as good or poignant as any famous writer, but there was truth in them.  It is this resonating truth, yearning to reveal itself further, that forces me to seek out the writings of others to point my children in its direction.
The following is adapted from that Walt Whitman passage, and it is simplified here - as they get older and can fathom more intense vocabulary, I hope they acknowledge the philosophies and poems of our greatest thinkers...


Do This:

Love the Earth, the Sun and the Animals.
Disregard money and its false power.
Give to every one that asks.
Stand up for the less fortunate.
Give your income and labor for others.
Ignore tyrants.
Argue not about God.
Have patience and indulgence toward everyone.
Keep your sovereignty.
Do not follow others.
Do not follow even what you think you know, or do not know. 
Go freely with the competent, with the young, and with the mothers of families.
Remember this in 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 does not feel right, and you will Be the great poem of life.
You will then have elegance and ability, not only in your words, but in your very being.

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