….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….
—Walt Whitman, Preface to Leaves of Grass
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I have always been moved and inspired by the writings of the American poet Walt Whitman. I can find something that speaks directly to me in almost everything of his I come across. For me, he remains one of the most intriguing and unique characters in the American experience in so many ways.
This comes across in the photos of him, including the remarkable portrait above that was taken by the great American painter Thomas Eakins in 1891, a year before Whitman’s death. It has a remarkable feeling of earned wisdom and understanding.
I had always felt a familial bond with him anyway, having called him Uncle Walt for as long as I can remember. He seemed like he was the wise old uncle I wanted growing up, someone who watched over me and imparted bits of wizened advice to me from time to time. So with this great reverence for the man, you can imagine how excited I was when my genealogy revealed that we were related.
Not an uncle.
Cousins.
Okay, 6th cousins. We share a grandparent going back to the early 1600’s, five generation before Whitman and nine generations before me. So, that makes us 6th cousins, 5 generations removed.
That’s like being in the furthest reaches of relationship in the game of 6 Degrees of Kevin Bacon. Sure, we’re related by these tenuous bonds but it is so far removed that it is academic at best. There are probably several hundred thousand, if not a million or more, people with this same bond. So it is certainly no big deal. Interesting but absolutely meaningless and without value.
But when I read a line from Whitman that makes my heart race a bit, that makes my brain and soul stir, I have to admit that it makes me happy that we share that silly, insignificant bond.
I just call him Cousin Walt now.
Now, if only you could get him to show up for the family reunion… That’s a really neat connection you found. I do fine with genealogy back to about gr-gr-grandparents, but when people start talking about Nth cousin X-removed, my eyes glaze. I can’t get it straight in my mind.
I’ve tried. He refuses to answer his email.
I had to laugh at your *eyes glazing over* comment. I often use that exact term to describe the effect I have when describing our family’s history to some of my relatives. I can see their eyes take on a distant aspect, like they are watching a television show in another part of their brain while I ramble on about Uncle Jedadiah and how he built the first log cabin with a window in Lower Egypt, Pennsyltucky.
I have learned to keep my discussions on genealogy short and as relevant as possible.
Now I’m laughing… Carry on!
So, let me tell you about Jedadiah’s cousin, Clementine Van Tassel…
I am not surprised you are connected to Walt. Maybe the Old souls theory applies.
You’re way too kind! I don’t know about “soul” part of that but lately I would agree with the “old” part.
💛💛💙💜💚