from “Song of Myself”
by Walt Whitman (1819-1892)
I think I could turn and live with animals,
they are so placid and self-contain’d,
I stand and look at them long and long.
They do not sweat and whine about their condition,
They do not lie awake in the dark and weep for their sins,
They do not make me sick discussing their duty to God,
Not one is dissatisfied, not one is demented with the mania of owning things,
Not one kneels to another, nor to his kind that lived thousands of years ago,
Not one is respectable or unhappy over the whole earth.
I discovered your site in researching Queen Elizabeth’s handbags, an obscure topic if ever there were one! Just wanted to say, nice job here. Thanks, Lisa!
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So glad it gave you pleasure.
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If only human beings would copy animals in this respect.
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Animals can be demanding – but they are not precarious.
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animals live on a sheer physical plane of existence. they do not have the all-too-human capacity for boredom. they just survive. and while humans have the ability to thrive they also face a lot of misery due to their high and mighty expectations. humans have an ego problem and a god complex.
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