this is what you shall do

a Walt Whitman poem that one of my college professors had taped to the side of his desk, the side that faced the chair students would sit in when they came to see him. I think about it every so often, sometimes it makes me feel bad about myself, sometimes it makes me feel better.

This is what you shall do:

love the earth and sun, and 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 towards the people,

take off your hat to nothing known or unknown, or to any man or number of men,

go freely with the powerful uneducated persons, and with the young, and 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 books,

and dismiss whatever insults your soul.