Dear Friends,
This week I enjoyed spring break with family and friends on a fantastic trip to Miami Beach. One of the best parts about this vacation, aside from being with one of my dearest friends and bringing our families together, was that my kids are getting older and they are starting to be more independent. We even let them go by themselves (together) up to the room, and inside the lobby to play pool. With my littlest one experiencing more responsibility and freedom, he was also more defiant when I said things like “it’s time to put on sunscreen.” So, we’re working through this new phase, but I had a little more time to rest, be with our friends, and think on vacation than I have in years.
One morning, I went for a walk by myself. I started my morning as I usually do, listening to Up First on NPR. There I was with sand in my toes, surrounded by early morning sunshine and a warm ocean breeze, listening to the synopsis of the worst things happening in the world right now. I find the state of the world confusing. On the one hand, there are modern conveniences that make life easier than ever before in human history for billions of people. On the other hand, our planet and so many communities are facing catastrophic and devastating problems. I think many of us feel grateful for all we have, and out of the goodness of our lives, we want as many living beings as possible to know peace, freedom, equality.
What can I do to steer the world in a more peaceful direction? This is a question I ask myself often.
Earlier this year I took a poetry course with Patricia Spears Jones, the current poet laureate of New York. One of our assignments was to read from Walt Whitman’s Democratic Vistas, and to then write a poem which brings forward some of the ideas from his book, which was written in 1871. He wrote it when he was working for the government in the Reconstruction Period after the Civil War to demonstrate the failures and potential of Democracy. In his opinion, this was what a poet should do—engage in society, and write meaningful observations.
Another exemplary gift from Walt Whitman is that he re-wrote his most famous work, Leaves of Grass, many times over the course of his life. He re-published as many as nine new editions over four decades so he could leave behind an American epic that stood true through all the ages of his life. Part of what this demonstrates is that we can both put ourselves (and our work) out there, and we can put pressure on ourselves to evolve our perspectives. Being productive, creative, and entrepreneurial doesn’t always mean coming up with new work, it often means iterating.
We can’t all be Walt Whitman; we aren’t all going to be the most influential person in our field, and even WW met with all kinds of controversy, and loss. He lost his job several times over the course of his career, and had as many people who promoted him as who knocked him down. But he was driven by purpose, and he demonstrated that purpose helps us to persevere.
Many of the problems humanity faces arise out of our differences. After the podcast ended, I began to think about what all humans have in common. What do humans need in order to thrive?
We Need
clean air,
food, water, shelter,
and to feel safe.
We need
intimate
connection.
We need to feel
creative, productive,
autonomous & generative.
We
need
love.
We need to be able to speak up,
we need to be heard,
we need to listen.
We need
intellectual
stimulation.
We need to feel whole
within ourselves & with
the vastness of the world.
So, with this in mind, how can I better be of service in the world? If I see that on a micro level that these are the essential things that all humans need, then what can I do to benefit these needs on micro and macro levels? This is a question I will spend my life living into. Next week, I will share a Loving Kindness meditation for paid-subscribers that will move us from the personal to the universal.
For those of you interested in the poem I wrote in Ms. Jones’s class, here it is. All of the capital words incorporated into this prose poem are brought forward from Democratic Vistas.
Love it...xoxo
🙏🏼🫶✌️