O Me! O Life!
Thoughts on Walt Whitman to begin the new year 2025
For more than half my adult life, the words and wisdom of Walt Whitman remain a guiding principle to a life lived well.
Published in his collection "Leaves of Grass" in 1891, the poem “O Me! O Life!” was a featured theme in the film "Dead Poets Society" in 1989.
I share it here as a mantra for those seeking excellence and meaning to the start of 2025:
“O Me! O Life!”
"Oh me! Oh life! of the questions of these recurring,
Of the endless trains of the faithless, of cities fill’d with the foolish,
Of myself forever reproaching myself, (for who more foolish than I, and who more faithless?)
Of eyes that vainly crave the light, of the objects mean, of the struggle ever renew’d,
Of the poor results of all, of the plodding and sordid crowds I see around me,
Of the empty and useless years of the rest, with the rest me intertwined,
The question, O me! so sad, recurring—What good amid these, O me, O life?
Answer.
That you are here—that life exists and identity,
That the powerful play goes on, and you may contribute a verse."
In "DPS," Robin Williams' Mr. Keating challenges his students to embrace Whitman's "Answer" to this very ode, asking:
"What will your verse be?"
What will you and I contribute to this "powerful play" that is life?
In a time of uncertainty like no other we have witnessed, it is my wish and my prayer that each one of us fervently seeks to contribute our own verse -- our own uniqueness -- to the amazing play of life.
Go safe and well into this New Year 2025!!
Keith Simmons Kernen
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