The Future

I taught a group of children for seven and a half years. They are all remarkable, every one. They are artists and poets, musicians and scientists, thespians and athletes. They see the world as an unlimited place. They are all preparing to go to university next year. They are applying to schools like Oberlin and Yale, Julliard and Northwestern. I am amazed and proud and I see they have grown into deep, soulful young adults. This weekend, I read a piece in The New York Times by one of my former students. I am humbled by what they will all bring to this world. I am so grateful to have been a part of this magic. One of my students sent me this a few years back. I found it while cleaning my email. I am so glad I did. 

"I do not ask the wounded person how he feels, I myself

      become the wounded person."

"Here or henceforward it is all the same to me, I accept

       Time absolutely."

"I exist as I am, that is enough."

"I have heard what the talkers were talking, the talk of the 

        beginning and the end,

But I do not talk of the beginning or the end."

"Here, take this gift,

I was reserving it for some hero, speaker, or general,

One who should serve the good old cause, the great idea,

     the progress and freedom of the race,

Some brave confronter of despots, some daring rebel;

But I see that what I was reserving belongs to you just as

     much as to any."

                 -Walt Whitman 

                          Song of Myself

                          To a Certain Cantatrice