Quoting Walt Whitman

            I will be up front.  Walt Whitman was a nineteenth century Quaker and I also am a Quaker.  Of course, I could have said he was a poet, which is what most people would first think about when asked about Whitman.  He wrote poetry that was to be used in speeches and in hymns.  Of course, he was a product of his time.  He lived and worked through the wrenching Civil War period of American history.  He has much still to teach us and so I see him as a prophet, too.  Poet and prophet was he.

            I regularly read a few papers as part of my daily routine.  One paper I actually get in printed form, along with my morning cup of coffee.  I am probably the last generation who is willing to pay money to get my hands dirty from the print.  My girls think I am nuts.  But there is the tactile experience of unruly paper after trying to fold it in half in order to free up the other hand for the steamy coffee.  Maybe I am nuts.  Other papers I read online---papers both from my original home town and papers from abroad.

            And so this morning when I was reading a paper online, I was not surprised to see the headline from one of David Brooks’ Op Ed offering, “What Holds America Together.”  I appreciate how bright Brooks’ mind is and how he thinks about issues that are contemporary and relevant to all of us.  And I also admire the wonderful education and experience Brooks brings to the table.  His insight is often laced with philosophical, spiritual and other perspectives that help me think about things.

            When I began to read his thoughts, I was intrigued to find out his answer to what holds America together.  I did not expect to see him quoting Walt Whitman, one of my Quaker forebears.  I share some of Brooks’ insights, but more than that, I want to share the profundity of one of my favorite Quakers.  Brooks begins the article with the unlikely story of attending a rodeo in Houston.  He describes the crazy variety of people who attend such a thing.  The variety represents the quilt-fabric that constitutes our culture---multi-cultural and multi-faceted.  What does hold America together?

            Early in the essay, Brooks offers his one-sentence answer.  “The answer can be only this: Despite our differences, we devote our lives to the same experiment, the American experiment to draw people from around the world and to create the best society ever, to serve as a model for all humankind.”  He describes it correctly as an experiment.  And that suggests the image of a laboratory.  Most of us remembers the “labs” in school we did in order to run experiments.  That is a good image for this land of ours.

            From this come lab reports.  And this is when Brooks turns to Whitman and the “lab report” essay, “Democratic Vistas,” written in 1871.  I appreciate how Brooks paraphrases Whitman, as well as, giving us some of Whitman’s own words and phrases.  Let’s begin with a Brooks’ paraphrase.  He says, “The purpose of democracy, Whitman wrote, is not wealth, or even equality; it is the full flowering of individuals.”  The flowering of individuals is a felicitous phrase---a delightful, happy way to put it.  I can imagine Whitman uses a phrase like that as an expression of Quaker spirituality.  It is easy for me to imagine that he, like I, imagines God created humans in order to flower. 

            Whitman then turns to another image for humans and humans within the American experiment.  In this line Brooks employs some of Whitman’s own words.  Listen to Brooks notes that “By dispersing responsibility to all adults, democracy “supplies a training school for making first class men.”  Our American experiment is now a “training school.”  The purpose of this school is to train first class men.  I am absolutely sure Whitman would switch to inclusive language if here were living today.  The training school is designed to make first class women and men. 

            I move to one last image Brooks borrows from Whitman’s pen.  Whitman allows that the American experiment “is ‘life’s gymnasium.’”  He continues, “It forges ‘freedom’s athletes’ — strong and equal women, courageous men, deep-souled people capable of governing themselves.”  As an old athlete, I can appreciate the image of a gymnasium.  I spent many hours of my life locked in a healthy contest with other athletes that tested us and made us stronger and better.  I think this is what Whitman had in mind.

            The American contest is to create freedom’s athletes.  These athletes will be strong and equal women.  They will be courageous men.  And most poignantly they will be deep-souled people.  I dearly appreciate the idea of being “deep-souled.”  I think this is the goal of spiritual development.  And in this country, the development of the American experiment and go hand-in-hand with spiritual development.

            It is where ideas like inclusivity, equality, freedom, etc. have a rightful place.  Religion and spirituality can play a key role---quoting Whitman.