Not Superiority but Possibilities for ALL: the Ideal of Original America (Nationalism Sucks!)5/4/2017 [Housekeeping Notes: My computer problems are not fixed. I will say it this way: I am not pleased. It has consumed hours of my time, and it will continue tomorrow at the Apple store. I couldn’t even type this morning’s handwritten Morning Pages; however, I posted the pic on IG with an explanation. And now, I’ve had to wait to use another computer, and my time is limited. Therefore, I have typed out the Morning Pages, and they will serve as a clearer recap of last night’s post and a preface to the rest of this evening’s. Also, I will not be able to share a picture tonight. God, I hope I don’t sound like a whiny baby!!!!]
Yesterday, I began a look at Walt Whitman’s “Song of the Universal.” I see reflected in the poem major elements of my philosophy on a personal level. The individual, masses, nations, and universe seem to be included, and they are done so because all have “the seed perfection,” which corresponds to my concept of Heart, eternal Spirit in us that relates us to eternal Spirit in every bit and expression of creation: “By every life a share or more or less, / None born but it is born, conceal’d or unconceal’d the seed is waiting.” Walt claims all of this creation and machinations of humanity are for the soul: “For it has history gather’d like husks around the globe: / For it the entire star myriads roll through the sky. … // For it the partial to the permanent flowing, / For it the real to the ideal tends…” Walt’s point is the whole of creation is meant for the soul. All is for each soul to process and understand through Heart, which is part of and relates us to “the seed perfection,” eternal Spirit. We can understand “the right” and “the evil” and the things Ego would evaluate as one or the other. And all these things may be confusing if Heart isn’t our source of personal truth: “O the blest eyes, the happy hearts, / That see, that know the guiding thread so fine, / Along the mighty labyrinth.” And finally, I get to the national part. Walt views America as a nation, the ideal nation, because the brand of democracy he sees in it, he saw in it, would allow individual souls to freely live their personal truth. Things have changed drastically. Walt believed that America would be the nation that provided the utopian environment in which Heart could be lived by individuals, each accepting, integrating, and understanding one another in perfect freedom. At least, he believed that America offered the best shot at it, that the majority and the leaders would uphold and embrace the embryonic, inchoate democratic concept based on the Declaration of Independence. Yes, I know the limitations of Walt’s contemporary society; however, within the context of his time, he expresses Heart principles, and he does so in a powerful way, in an uncompromising way. I love how he glosses over the departures from the original promise, and he proclaims the possibilities, the truths of his Heart for the nation. The promises of eternal Spirit, of “the seed perfection” in each of us, Walt sees what he perceives as the plan of the Universe to allow that seed to grow and mature: “And thou America, / For the scheme’s culmination, its thought and its reality, / For these (not for thyself) thou hast arrived. // Thou too surroundest all, / Embracing carrying welcoming all, thou too by pathways broad and new, / To the ideal tendest. … // All, all for immortality, / Love like the light silently wrapping all, / Nature’s amelioration blessing all…” Lofty goals but real hopes of Whitman. A lot of quoting, I know, but it reveals the hope Walt saw in the concept of America, the Union. Walt goes on to speak of “Belief in plan of [God, Spirit] enclosed in Time and Space,” the idea I see as Spirit being in us to experience through physical senses its own creation. America, though, has not met the expectations of Whitman. Why? Because it is essential that a majority of the populace would come to be aware of and allow that “seed perfection,” Heart, to operate on the mind-soul-body complex and to ripen. He sees the possibility of “Nature’s amelioration blessing all.” It hasn’t happened. Ego has run rampant; the mass of people “lead lives of quiet desperation,” and Heart-denying oligarchs have played on that desperation based mostly on materialism and desire for wealth over living Heart and personal truth. Not a good combination. The only soul-satisfying response is to acknowledge and live personal truth, to come to nurture that “seed perfection,” and accept self and others in love. The rampant nationalism of America, her leaders, and the current political power block deny all of the hope that Whitman holds in his works. They are a shame and blight on what could have been vastly different, what may yet be. It won’t come, though, through current policy of hatred, bigotry, egotistical nationalism of “we’re better than everyone else.” That is stupid and sickening. We are not. Walt views America as embracing all history and all people as equals because America offered the opportunity for all to live together in the reality and truth of Heart. We need to live and discover Heart and create our Purpose in disregard of what America has become and all those who would oppose the original philosophy. America was intended to be a nation where delegated and prescribed liberties allowed individuals to engage in their “unalieanable rights of Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.” Any so-called leader or president who blatantly disregards those in the Declaration and the Constitution is no true leader; in fact, that person would be a traitor. Blessings as you seek living Heart for yourself in concert with the “Song of the Universal."
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Questions to consider:How many times have you asked yourself or simply thought about the following questions?
Who am I, really? What is my truth? How do my actions reveal what I really feel and believe? What would I do with my life if I could do anything? What is my passion? Why am I here? How can I discover answers to any of these questions? If you have considered any of these questions, I hope that my experiences and writing will give you some guidance. Please read my blog and comment and share your thoughts. I would love to hear from you! Archives
December 2019
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