The capacity for human compassion is quite interesting, how we have this ability to feel physical affliction at the sight of those who are wounded or deceased. And yet, we contradict ourselves by inflicting the wounds or fatal blows to those victims. How strange that some are willing to be the cause of lives cut short while at the same time others are willing to cry endlessly for those same lives. I'll never understand the concept, the complexity of the human condition can be quite unsettling. That we can inflict pain while our hearts have the ability to bleed unhinges me.
How horrific it must have been to witness such a devastating war in your own backyard. And I think we too often forget that this is a reality for many people. Civil wars are not just a thing of the past, there is someone out there right now that is experiencing exactly what Whitman was. It's terrible how we choose to ignore it because we all are capable of giving a shit and doing something. Why do we choose to embrace the worst human qualities rather than the phenomenal ones that make us unique from our barbaric great ape relatives?
What a grave paragraph.
Yes. Say what you will about Walt - - he walks the walk and talks the talk. His Civil War is not via newspapers and speeches . . but flesh and blood.
ReplyDelete