Self from my perspective is basically a convoluted mess of little importance. Whitman even said himself that it was very near impossible to try to find out exactly what makes up Self. Considering that he actually cared about and spent years looking for the elusive "Self", and I have neither the desire nor time to spend on such a thing, I think I'll leave the Self-analyzing to Whitman. There is no way that I will ever know everything about myself, and I usually fail at guessing what other people think, especially when whatever they are thinking of involves me. You really can't analyze chaos.
Personally, I kind of hate the idea of Self, at least Whitman's definition of it. It annoys me that he could be so egotistical, but then turn around and be self-depreciating in the same sentence. Personally, given that I only enjoy a handful of his poems, I don't think Whitman is a good enough writer or poet to feel entitled to this discovery of Self. It's one of those mysteries in life that mere human beings are not supposed to be able to solve. That's the main reason this journal has a rambling, ranting sort of tone. No one will ever figure this stuff out, so I say, "Why try?" All it will do is make me feel again how insignificant I am in the grand scheme of things.
I also don't like Whitman's view of the Holy Trinity. I think that he doesn't fully understand it himself. Then he goes and writes that since God is in everyone, everyone is God. I don't know where exactly I stand on Self, but I know that's not a part of my definition. To say that is arrogance to the extreme. It's even worse than the scenario presented by the saying "everyone is special, so no one is". If everyone is God, then God loses much of His power. That's not even accounting for the atheists of the world. I'm sure that they would disagree with Whitman on this point.
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