Fighting for Sustainability? Remember the Lessons of Walt Whitman

As we celebrate Independence Day here in the US, it seems a fitting time to honor the work of American poet Walt Whitman, as it applies to the type of spirit that defines humanity at its greatest.  The lessons he taught us about man’s indominable toughness apply to all of us who fight uphill battles — whether they’re about sustainability or anything else.  

Here’s a familiar section from the preface Whitman wrote in 1855 to his collected works: Leaves of Grass.

“This is what you shall do; 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.”