When I heard the learn’d astronomer by Walt Whitman
When I heard the learn’d astronomer,
When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me,
When I was shown the charts and diagrams, to add, divide, and measure them,
When I sitting heard the astronomer where he lectured with much applause in the lecture-room,
How soon unaccountable I became tired and sick,
Till rising and gliding out I wander’d off by myself,
In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time,
Look’d up in perfect silence at the stars.
Just wanted to share some genius with you today. Those old poets really knew how to make a point. I had a really tough English teacher two years in a row. A.P. English was perhaps the most difficult class I ever took. But Mrs. H pushed my lazy ass and I wrote. I also got grounded if my grade was below a B and in Mrs. H’s class a C was normal. I got grounded a few times but usually I intercepted the PINK SLIP she would write to alert my mother of my shameful grade. I remember reading this and totally understanding it, I had the best discussion with Mrs. H about this poem. I got an A.
Walt Whitman (1819-1892) is America’s world poet — a latter-day successor to Homer, Virgil, Dante, and Shakespeare. In his Leaves of Grass, first published in 1855 and revised and expanded for the rest of his life, he celebrated democracy, nature, love, and friendship. This monumental work chanted praises to the body as well as to the soul, and found beauty and reassurance even in death.
In 1999, John F. Kennedy Jr., his wife, Carolyn, and her sister, Lauren Bessette, died when their single-engine plane, piloted by Kennedy, plunged into the Atlantic Ocean near Martha’s Vineyard, Mass.
I remember hearing the first words of the missing plane and who was on it and knowing it was over. I knew the circumstances, watched it unfold as did everyone because John John was royalty. He was also this guy who was always downtown in Soho, on his bike, or roller blades. at bars and always a big flirt.
One summer night in 1998, out with friends celebrating Max ’s having passed the BAR exam. We were down on West Broadway at Lucky Strike and Box a very Euro bar with great drinks. JFK jr. came in, and went to the bar. Notoriously he had not passed the BAR in his first attempt, and had real difficulty passing it later. I always saw him but I would never approach him, there was no reason to and he was always surrounded by women anyway. So the joke/idea was that we should ask him to join us for a toast to Max for his achievement, passing the BAR on his first try. It was teasing and mean and I don’t do mean. There was no way I would go through with it even though the bar was rather quiet that night and the fact was John John had looked over a few times and smiled his famous smile in our direction. My friends kept telling me to go over, he was looking and I was being ridiculous, but I had no intention.
As he was leaving, he veered toward our table and said ”Hope you are having a good night,” looking and locking eyes with me and then smiled the killer smile and walked out. Well my “cool” friends all burst out into nervous laughter as I turned crimson red. I was so happy they never went through with their childish dig.
A year later he was married and missing and everyone I knew was crushed ,shocked and in disbelief. How could it be in real life, that this could happen to him? I mean why? The Kennedy curse just would not relent. I remember my first thought was, thank G-d Jackie O. had passed, and about Caroline and her utter despair over her baby brother. The Bessette family losing two daughters in a national tragedy. The search went on for over three days but I grieved knowing there was no surprise ending.
It was like Princess Diana all over again. It devastated the country and the world.
I am a sentimental person so I shared that silly story. Rest in peace, John, Carolyn and Lauren you are not forgotten.
Combining some of my favorite things i.e. poetry, tennis, and tennis players. This Wimbledon promo is simply a fortunate find. Without further ado, I present Roger and Rafa reciting Rudyard Kiplings “IF” which adornes the entrance to center court at Wimbledon.
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:
If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;
If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!
When I was in the 8th grade I had to commit this to memory. When I taught school I made the kids memorize it as well, though that week they hated me outwardly, they all managed to do it. I hope they still recall it as I do, because for me it was the first time I understood what this country stood for. I was so young then and now though I am somewhat jaded, I still feel patriotic reading it. I am an immigrant and I am proud to be an American.
We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union,
establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence,promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
There are at least two sides to every story, and once the media gets involved then there are countless more. I was a precocious child and seriously questioned “facts” I was being taught at school or heard on television. Thankfully my parents indulged my inquisitive nature and provided, to the best of their ability, answers and explanations. However, some explanations just didn’t equate and because I was a curious student I tended to independently research topics that the history books seemed to gloss over. In middle school I did three separate reports on the Cosa Nostra, the Mai Lai Massacre and Nixon’s presidency for one history class and the teacher asked me if I was OK, and suggested that perhaps I needed some guidance from the counselor due to my “depressing” (his words) topics. I believe this to be the time I started to lean toward alternative or “conspiracy theories.”
Through high school, college, and graduate school as well as a ridiculous amount of additional reading, my views on conspiracy theory evolved. I began to view the media as entertainment, often bereft of truth and always biased. Reporter’s were just actors reading words from a teleprompter fed them by sources who were responsible for making sure the news was just right for mass consumption. This created dissonance in me and led to a general distrust of authority. Needless to say it was a disappointing evolution but one that was inevitable for my personality and nature.
The event that convinced me, however, was the death of Princess Diana. Let me first say that I believe human beings are all “psychic” to some degree. I am a person who has had enough vivid premonitions (that have proven correct) to be convinced of “precognitive” phenomena as it pertains to me. I recognize these “visions“when the flash of information is accompanied by a very physical reaction, best described as a “gut feeling” increased heart rate and a sense of dread. (Unfortunately, my psychic sensitivity is strongest when pertaining to impending death, or physical trauma. Lucky me.) I digress; I was looking through our mail and found a People magazine (guilty pleasure) with a full cover shot of Diana and a small inset picture of Dodi Fayed the headline mentioned that the Princess might be with child. I remember holding the magazine and saying out loud (no one was home) “Diana, what are you thinking, they are going to have you killed. The mother of the future King of England can’t have a stepchild with an Arab. This is the final straw.” I stared at the cover and felt doom and dread, which is the only way to describe it. Of course, I forgot about it in a few days, but not before telling my Mom and best friend, the weird premonition I had. Three weeks later, as I made my way home in the early hours of the morning from a night out in NYC, I turned on the TV and there is was. The car had just crashed eight minutes or so prior and there was no word on the condition of the passengers. Once I heard Diana was involved I knew she was gone and I sat and cried, watching the coverage. The official announcement that Princess Di and Dodi had perished came sometime later, but it was a formality for I knew what had happened on a guttural level. Of course hearing confirmation just turned the tears to sobs, as my mother and best friend watched the same coverage and tried to comfort me as best they could. This was by no means the first time I had a similar experience, I just wished I had been wrong.
Time Out: This is where you think I am crazy and delusional and I would too. I know I am putting myself out there for ridicule, but that is in fact what a conspiracy theory invites.
Since then I have delved deeply into the Kennedy family, which perhaps was the most disenchanting research I have come across. Camelot? What Camelot? Watching Spitzer squirm out of politics, I wondered how J.F.K. might have fared under the same media scrutiny? My guess is he would never have been elected for a second term, if he ever made it to a first. A dirtier bunch has yet to be found.
The events which transpired on 9/11 were very close to home for me. Having lived in New York for most of my life the grief over lost friends and acquaintances had to be endured and only with time could they be questioned. Consequently, along with the sadness, disbelief and anger I was feeling, there was the gnawing suspicion that somehow the events of that day were not as they had been reported. It took quite some time to be able to start thinking about and asking questions about those facts. I discovered Loose Change, the first edition one day on YouTube and watched with horror as the documentary laid out the information that pointed to other theories of the attack. Skeptic that I was, there were some glaring discrepancies the film illuminated which I could not ignore (See the third edition of Loose Change for all the hypotheses). And so, like many conspiracy theorists, I simply don’t believe the party line that 9/11 was an act of brilliant terrorists who managed to pull off the impossible.
I by no means claim to know what happened in any of these tragic historical events, and am resigned to the fact that I may never know to my satisfaction. Yet they all, in their own way, foster my belief in conspiracies, cover-ups and crimes perpetrated at the expense of human lives and with blatant disregard for truth, morality and any semblance of a government that can be trusted. So I question everything, do you?
Martin Luther King Jr. dedicated his life to a cause he felt was worth fighting, yet he never believed in violence.He was one of the greatest orators, but he was reluctant and could be shy.People oppressed saw in him the possibility.He gave them hope, for he was brave and determined.He led a march on Washington that changed the world, although he may not have seen it that way at the time.He is the voice of many today as he was the day he uttered the words “I have a dream.”And did he ever?His words are inspiring, poetic and proud.These passages are my personal favorite.What are yours?
I say to you today, my friends, so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.
I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.”
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.
This will be the day when all of God’s children will be able to sing with a new meaning, “My country, ’tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim’s pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring.”
And if America is to be a great nation this must become true. So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania!Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring.
And when this happens, when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, “Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!”
I ask you to share your favorite passages from this speech or any of Martin Luther King Jr. extensive statements, thoughts or photos.Today we remember a man who was brave enough to give his life to a cause he knew he would never see resolved.He was undeterred, focused and therefore a target and threat for those who could not see his vision and did not share his enlightenment.So today, those of us who believe in this man, husband, father, preacher, brilliant leader and Nobel Peace Prize Winner, celebrate his life and tireless work he did for us all.May he rest in peace.
