dual personalities

Tag: Walt Whitman

April 14, 2015

Sing of the love we bore him

by chuckofish

Today is the 150th anniversary of the death of Abraham Lincoln. He was shot on April 14 (only five days after Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox), but he lingered until the morning of the 15th.

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The death of President Abraham Lincoln had a profound impact on the poet Walt Whitman and his writing. It is the subject of one of his most highly regarded and critically examined pieces, “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d” (1865-1866) and one of his best-known poems, “O Captain! My Captain!” (1865-1866). Whitman also delivered (sporadically) annual public lectures commemorating Lincoln’s death beginning in April 1879.

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Here is the first poem Whitman wrote about Lincoln’s death.

(May 4, 1865)

HUSH’D be the camps to-day,

And soldiers let us drape our war-worn weapons,

And each with musing soul retire to celebrate,

Our dear commander’s death.

No more for him life’s stormy conflicts,

Nor victory, nor defeat—no more time’s dark events,

Charging like ceaseless clouds across the sky.

But sing poet in our name,

Sing of the love we bore him—because you, dweller in camps,
know it truly.

As they invault the coffin there,

Sing—as they close the doors of earth upon him—one verse,

For the heavy hearts of soldiers.

Let’s all take a moment to ponder our fallen president and the great national calamity that was his death.

1 Comment
February 26, 2015

“I exist as I am, that is enough”*

by chuckofish

Well, thank you, fastcoexist.com for letting me know that I live in one of the worst states for “well-being”.

3042617-inline-i-1-the-states-where-people-are-feeling-the-best-and-the-worst

Yes, there we are in gray in flyover country. Well, I say phooey.

Don’t you get tired of being told the results of surveys and studies? I say, live your life and forget about surveys.

I think I will give them up for Lent.

Meanwhile, our well-being in flyover country is greatly enhanced by the fact that these guys are back in training.

matheny-motte

matheny

C’mon, Mike, turn around!

“I exist as I am, that is enough,
If no other in the world be aware I sit content,
And if each and all be aware I sit content.
One world is aware, and by the far the largest to me, and that is myself.”

(Walt Whitman)

 

9 Comments
October 9, 2014

“I see great things in baseball.” *

by chuckofish

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So the Cardinals have won the NLDS and move on now to the NLCS against the San Francisco Giants. Gone are the days of just winning the National League pennant. Like everything else, baseball has gotten pretty complicated. Nevertheless, we are, of course, pretty darn excited about it here in flyover country!

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And let me just say, you have to love a sport where it isn’t always the superstars who are the heroes. Sometimes it’s a dude like Matt Adams, affectionately know as “Big City”, who saves the day.

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It’s a team sport where everyone works together, but at the same time, each guy has to stand up in front of 47,000+ screaming spectators and face off alone against the entire opposing team.  Once in awhile he hits what turns out to be a game-winning homerun and that is awesome.

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Yes, we love Matt Adams and we love our Cardinals. What’s not to love? Haters gonna hate, but as my mother used to say, “They’re just jealous.”

*Walt Whitman

 

9 Comments
July 14, 2014

“To set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.”*

by chuckofish

I had a busy week that flew by and then a quiet weekend filled with my usual musings and meanderings.

I read the second lesson  on Sunday–one of Paul’s attempts at logically explaining the unexplainable in Romans 8. How I do love him. The associate rector praised my reading as I left the sanctuary after the service and when I demurred, he clasped my hand and said, “Oh, no, no. You are a superstar! When you read you give the words meaning…” I blush to remember. But I must say  I was pleased. No one else calls me a superstar!

On the way out I caught up with a man who I have been trying to get in touch with and asked him if he would take part in a course we are offering this fall at our flyover institute. He is the former head of a global architectural firm based in our flyover city. He said yes. I was on a roll!

I decided to go back to an estate sale I had gone to on Saturday to see if a few things were still there. They were not, but I bought three art books for a dollar each. Score.

On the flora and fauna front, my hibiscus, which I planted from seeds (harvested from a friend’s garden) last year, has bloomed!

hibiscus buds

hibiscus blooms

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See the bee hard at work in there?

It really is the little things that make us happy, right? Someone saying “good job!” or someone saying “Yes!” or a flower blooming.

I hope this week is full of more positive reinforcement. We musn’t forget to hand out those positive vibes when we are in a position to do so. Say “Yes!” at least once this week.

“Keep your face always toward the sunshine – and shadows will fall behind you.”

–Walt Whitman

 

10 Comments
May 28, 2014

I tramp a perpetual journey

by chuckofish

Saturday, by the way, is Walt Whitman’s birthday–May 31, the last of the amazing birthday month of May!

walt-whitmanI will be out of town, so I thought I would give you a little W.W. today so you can think ahead and plan your celebration.

I know I have the best of time and space, and was never measured and never will be measured.

I tramp a perpetual journey, (come listen all!)
My signs are a rain-proof coat, good shoes, and a staff cut from the woods,
No friend of mine takes his ease in my chair,
I have no chair, no church, no philosophy,
I lead no man to a dinner-table, library, exchange,
But each man and each woman of you I lead upon a knoll,
My left hand hooking you round the waist,
My right hand pointing to landscapes of continents and the public road.

Not I, not any one else can travel that road for you,
You must travel it for yourself.

It is not far, it is within reach,
Perhaps you have been on it since you were born and did not know,
Perhaps it is everywhere on water and on land.

–Walt Whitman, Song of Myself, 46

Oh, man, isn’t he the best?

4 Comments
February 17, 2014

There we two, content, happy in being together, speaking little, perhaps not a word*

by chuckofish

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How was your weekend? Did you have a nice Valentine’s Day?

I asked my valentine for a new shower head and my husband went out and bought one for me. I was pleased. He had to buy a special wrench as well (par for the course) but he installed it with a minimum of cursing.

Later in the weekend I found a box with old cards in it. Some were Valentines. This one from the Green Tiger Press

valentinecard

was sent to my one-year-old daughter #1 by her aunt, my dual personality, who was a first year doctoral student living in a dorm at Yale at the time.  She wrote a long note inside. Here is a wee bit of that note:

Well, sweetie-poops, I have to make this short because I need to mail it and then take a nap. My neighbors kept me awake last night with their talking and I had to get up really early to do my Hittite and Akkadian, so I am tired. Otherwise, I’m doing okay and working hard and eating right and learning French and thinking about you all the time!

Isn’t that a riot? It was fun to go through all the cards and read what my friends wrote back in the day when our children were tiny and we were young and lighthearted.

I saw Inside Llewyn Davis. I really liked it. I thought Oscar Isaac was excellent. I had been listening to the soundtrack all week and so I was well prepared for the music to be great. But the film is more than just the music. And I liked the marmalade cat a lot. It made me want another Cat. But I am allergic, so that won’t happen. Sigh. Of course, the movie wasn’t nominated for Best Picture and Oscar got no Oscar nod. Typical.

coencat

I went to a couple of estate sales, but didn’t get anything except a few odd books.

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I have been reading Missouri Bittersweet by MacKinlay Kantor and it is wonderful. I had no idea Kantor, whom I have always admired as a novelist, was such a fan of my flyover state. He and his wife revisited many small towns and counties in order to write this book and there is a lot of interesting stuff about the fascinating people who have lived in this state, such as Jesse James, Mark Twain and Daniel Boone, and also the regular people who still do.  It was published in 1969.

I was the Intercessor at church Sunday morning. In the Prayers of the People we always pray for the diocese of Lui in the Sudan and some of those African names can be a challenging mouthful, but I managed to stumble over “Albert”. Sometimes my brain just freezes. But afterwards the associate rector complimented me on my reading of the names on the prayer request list. I gather I kept the pace up nicely. Well, compliments are always appreciated.

And the amaryllis finally bloomed!

amaryllis

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It seemed like it took forever and they still haven’t quite burst forth completely.  Our patience has been tested! They are indeed a welcome sight in the midst of our arctic winter–as are all our green friends which I move around the house to sunny spots.

A sunny window at home

A sunny window at home

Have a good week!

* from “A Glimpse” by Walt Whitman (1819 – 1892)

4 Comments
December 4, 2013

What do you seek so pensive and silent?* What are you reading?

by chuckofish

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I have been all over the board (and map) recently with my reading choices. I read a good mystery by James Lee Burke, In the Electric Mist with Confederate Dead. I like the detective Dave Robicheaux and the author knows what he is writing about. The characters are not wooden and/or cardboard and the locale is detailed and real. A lot of bad things happen, however, and so I probably will not be in a hurry to read more, but if you like good, well-written mysteries, here you go.

From the low life in Louisiana I headed to lovely Botswana and the fourteenth entry in the #1 Ladies Detective series by Alexander McCall Smith. As I have said before, there is certainly not a lot to these novels. Nothing much happens and some of the characters are downright annoying, but when I am in the right mood, I don’t care. I like Precious Romotswe and her little white van. The author skillfully weaves a gentle tale of friendship and family. We are reminded that people are the same everywhere and the important things in life do not change. It is good to be reminded of this.

From there I moved on to the wonderful Marilynne Robinson and her engagingly titled book of essays When I Was a Child I Read Books. I can relate to that. I love everything Marilynne has ever published–and sadly that is not a whole lot–but she is one of those people who, if I ever met her and tried to have a conversation with her, I would feel like this:

Speechless

She just knows so much and is so articulate. But she is on my page. She looks at history in context. She likes to give credit where it is due. She questions arrogant scientists. She is a Calvinist. I highly recommend her, if you are up to it.

Now I am back to the what-to-read-next question. What are you reading?

*Old Walt Whitman

4 Comments
October 8, 2013

You are here

by chuckofish

whitman-main

Oh me! Oh life! of the questions of these recurring,
Of the endless trains of the faithless, of cities fill’d with the foolish,
Of myself forever reproaching myself, (for who more foolish than I, and who more faithless?)
Of eyes that vainly crave the light, of the objects mean, of the struggle ever renew’d,
Of the poor results of all, of the plodding and sordid crowds I see around me,
Of the empty and useless years of the rest, with the rest me intertwined,
The question, O me! so sad, recurring—What good amid these, O me, O life?

Answer.
That you are here—that life exists and identity,
That the powerful play goes on, and you may contribute a verse.

O Me! O Life! by Walt Whitman
Leaves of Grass (1892)

5 Comments
June 10, 2013

Weekend update

by chuckofish

How was your weekend? Well, Saturday was the Ethical Society Book Sale and, as usual, I had a good time sorting through the books, choosing $20 worth of hardbacks and paperbacks ranging from beach reading to classics. What is better than loading up with $1 and $2 books? Not much.

books

I also went to a couple of estate sales and found a few things, including a $4 pair of new-with-tags Lilly Pulitzer swimming trunks for my old man to wear in Florida.

lillyP

Oh, the joy of the hunt and finding things you really weren’t looking for but that you really need!

The boy came over on Sunday and we cleaned up the garage. I mean really cleaned it up. We threw away a lot of stuff–old sports equipment, broken folding chairs, a shelf of muddy athletic shoes, umbrellas without handles, half-filled bags of gardening stuff, general detritus. It was glorious.

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By the way, I seem to have missed Walt Whitman’s birthday on May 31, and for this I apologize.

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Here is James Earl Jones reading from “Song of Myself”. Scroll down a bit and then take a few minutes to listen to it. You’ll be glad you did. Wonderful.

Have a good week! I am hoping for Quiet and Uneventful.

4 Comments
March 5, 2013

Things and the reason of things

by chuckofish

Whoever you are! motion and reflection are especially for you,
The divine ship sails the divine sea for you.

Whoever you are! you are he or she for whom the earth is solid and liquid,
You are he or she for whom the sun and moon hang in the sky,
For none more than you are the present and the past,
For none more than you is immortality.

Each man to himself and each woman to herself, is the word of the past and present, and the true word of immortality,
No one can acquire for another–not one,
Not one can grow for another–not one.

The song is to the singer, and comes back most to him,
The teaching is to the teacher, and comes back most to him,
The murder is to the murderer, and comes back most to him,
The theft is to the thief, and comes back most to him,
The love is to the lover, and comes back most to him,
The gift is to the giver, and comes back most to him–it cannot fail,
The oration is to the orator, the acting is to the actor and actress not to the audience,
And no man understands any greatness or goodness but his own, or the indication of his own.

–Walt Whitman, A Song of the Rolling Earth

And in other news: my friend Gary’s band Sun Volt was featured in the Wall Street Journal the other day. You can read the article here.

via Wall Street Journal

via Wall Street Journal

Gary is the cool dude on the far left.

3 Comments