Nicholas Acker: Makind Nature Sacred #2

Walt Whitman’s views are hard to decipher, but he presents ideas that I can relate strongly to. Whitman took ideas and views from many different places and combined them together to create a new method of thinking and viewing the world around him. One quote that has strong religious influence conveys what seems to amount to ‘Whitman’s commandments.’ “This is what you shall do: Love the earth and sun and animals, despise riches, give alms to everyone that asks, stand up for the stupid and crazy, devote you income and labor to others, hate tyrants, argue not concerning God… [and] read these leaves in the open air every season of every year of your life.” (1855, Leaves) Whitman has even regarded this work as “the new Bible.” These views denounce a godhead figure, accept Jesus as a brother, and seek more to see the divinity of humanity as a whole rather than a God in heaven. Whitman takes these ideals to the extreme, at times even feeling as though he is the grand incarnation of God’s body throughout the material world. But this idea of every human being able to experience and embrace this divinity without necessarily worshiping a God is powerful. Every human has the inherent ability to be great and make a difference around them, they just have to embrace it and follow a set of moral virtues.