Some Words...

...From Mr. Walt Whitman

In one of my American Literature classes, we read a little bit of Walt Whitman's work. I'm not yet a big fan, but I do like this bit of his poetry. We read it and I got goosebumps...

"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........The poet shall not spend his time in unneeded work. He shall know that the ground is always ready ploughed and manured....others may not know it but he shall. He shall go directly to the creation. His trust shall master the trust of everything he touches....and shall master all attachment. The known universe has one complete lover and that is the greatest poet."

This little excerpt is from Leaves of Grass, it was pretty much his life's work. From what I've read, he lived in poverty all of his life, and it makes me wonder if that could be what made him such a great poet. He saw the beauty in everything and cared not what everyone else thought. He was rejected on many occasions, but believed in what he was writing.

Money might have ruined this man, if it had the chance.

He really was not even recognized as a great poet until long after his death. Even in the 1800's, the almighty dollar could take away our God-given ability to enjoy what is around us. Walt Whitman said no. In my opinion, that makes him one of the greatest poets of his time, though not many saw it.

If we want to be poets, we must be lovers of life.

Who is the greatest poet? Jesus Christ.

A Little Story...

Did God create everything that exists?
Dose evil exist?
Did God create evil?

A University professor at a well known institution of higher learning challenged his students with this question.
"Did God create everything that exists?"
A student bravely replied, "Yes he did!"
"God created everything?" The professor asked.
"Yes sir, he certainly did," the student replied.
The professor answered, "If God created everything; then God Created evil.
And, since evil exists, and according to the principle that our works define who we are, then we can assume God is evil."
The student became quiet and did not respond to the professor's hypothetical definition.

The professor, quite pleased with himself, boasted to the students
that he had proven once more that the Christian faith was a myth.
Another student raised his hand and said, "May I ask you a question, professor?" "Of course", replied the professor.

The student stood up and asked, "Professor, dose cold exist?"
"What
kind of question is this? Of course it exists. Have you never been
cold?" The other students snickered at the young man's question. The
young man replied, "In fact sir, cold dose not exist. According to the
laws of physics, what we consider cold is in reality the absence of
heat. Every body or object is susceptible to study when it has or
transmits energy, and heat is what makes a body or matter have or
transmit energy.
Absolute zero (-460 F) is the total absence of heat;
and all matter becomes inert and incapable of reaction at that
temperature. Cold dose not exist.
We have created this word to describe how we feel is we have no heat."

The student continued, "Professor, dose darkness exist?"
The professor responded, "Of course it dose."
The
student replied, "Once again you are wrong sir, darkness dose not
exist either. Darkness is in reality the absence of light.
Light we can study, but not darkness.
In
fact, we can use Newton's prism to break white light into many colors
and study the various wavelengths of each color. You cannot measure
darkness.
A simple ray of light can break into a world of darkness when there is no light present."

Finally the young man asked the professor, "Sir, dose evil exist?"
Now uncertain, the professor responded, "Of course; as I have already said.
We see it everyday.
It is in the daily examples of man's inhumanity to man.
It is in the multitude of crime and violence everywhere in the world.
These manifestations are nothing else but evil.
To this the student replied, "Evil dose not exist, sir, or at least Evil is simply the absence of God.
It is just like darkness and cold, a word that man has created to describe the absence of God.
God did not create evil.
Evil is the result of what happens when man dose not have God's love present in his heart.
It's like the cold that comes when there is no heat, or the darkness that comes when there is no light"

The professor sat down.

The young man's name -- Albert Einstein