Complexity In Walt Whitman's Song Of Myself
Shahab Ahmed places two wonderful insights together as a way of giving concrete backing to the poet Walt Whitman’s general observation on humanity. In Song of Myself Whitman examines what it is to exist and pulls apart the complexities he discovers, one of the most famous and enduring complexities being that “I am large, I contain multitudes.” Whitman is saying he can contradict himself, that he is not simply one thing, that many parts of him function, sometimes almost entirely spate from other parts of what is considered to be him.
In the anecdote given, a Muslim scholar is questioned by a European philosopher who finds the former’s drinking wine questionable, as the philosopher knows that there is a tradition of abstinence from alcohol among …show more content…
People are not objects that can be set nicely on a shelf with groupings of similar curious and definitively identified with fewer than fifteen words, human beings muddle things up and find patterns simply to smash them. Defiance and complexity are the hallmarks of humanity, particularly modern humanity.
Imagining others complexly is one of the greatest difficulties of living, but it is the greatest fonts of charity as well. To understand the multitudes and contradictions of a person or at least attempt to is an act that seeks to accept another’s humanity, their depths and their faults. No person is less than any other, nor truly any greater than any other. Individuals can only be fully understood within themselves, but to seek out and embrace the detailed intricacies of others is to share in the greatest trait of humankind.
The particular example given by Shahab Ahmed to illustrate on instance of the multitudes Whitman wrote of are now more apt then ever in a time when people are placed into smaller and more cramped boxes. Understanding and valuing the complex of those not just around us daily, but of every human, is one of the essential ways in which one is able to carry on each day chin held high, ready to encounter new greatness in whomsoever one stumbles
In the anecdote given, a Muslim scholar is questioned by a European philosopher who finds the former’s drinking wine questionable, as the philosopher knows that there is a tradition of abstinence from alcohol among …show more content…
People are not objects that can be set nicely on a shelf with groupings of similar curious and definitively identified with fewer than fifteen words, human beings muddle things up and find patterns simply to smash them. Defiance and complexity are the hallmarks of humanity, particularly modern humanity.
Imagining others complexly is one of the greatest difficulties of living, but it is the greatest fonts of charity as well. To understand the multitudes and contradictions of a person or at least attempt to is an act that seeks to accept another’s humanity, their depths and their faults. No person is less than any other, nor truly any greater than any other. Individuals can only be fully understood within themselves, but to seek out and embrace the detailed intricacies of others is to share in the greatest trait of humankind.
The particular example given by Shahab Ahmed to illustrate on instance of the multitudes Whitman wrote of are now more apt then ever in a time when people are placed into smaller and more cramped boxes. Understanding and valuing the complex of those not just around us daily, but of every human, is one of the essential ways in which one is able to carry on each day chin held high, ready to encounter new greatness in whomsoever one stumbles