"Walt Whitman famously declared, 'I contain multitudes.' Being the obscure poet that he was, no one is quite sure what he meant by that. After all, this is the same poem, titled 'Song of Myself,' in which he boasts that he is, 'untranslatable,' and his, 'barbaric yawp' sounds over the roofs of the world. Typical grandiose writer-type stuff, there.
"As difficult as it is to parse out the subtle shades of meaning in his words, it does seem clear that Whitman is trying to express the fundamental mystery of the human soul. Human beings are prone to behave in strange ways, with conflicted motivations and feelings that we ourselves don't quite understand. . . ."
In a recent commentary based on the life of St. Dominic, Father Michael Rennier
reflected on some of the reasons for the human capacity for experiencing multitudes of conflicted emotions.
To access Fr. Rennier's complete post, please visit:
Aleteia: Fr. Michael Rennier: Why can our souls contain such conflicting feelings? (21 MAY 23)
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