Pioneers! O Pionners!

Come my tan-faced children,

Follow well in order, get your weapons ready,
Have you your pistols? Have you your sharp-edged axes?
Pioneers! O Pioneers!


No matter how down or unmotivated I may be feeling, Walt Whitman's words have consistently served as a most exquisite jolt to my heart and soul. "Pioneers! O Pioneers" is a beautiful ode to the many courageous pioneers that braved the unknown of the "West" during the 19th century. I love how his ode is so inclusive and exuberant; a Song of Songs for the American journeyers. We take it for granted now, but the pioneers were primarily young adults. My age. While I have little reason to gather my provisions, buy a horse and wagon, and perhaps a dysentery shot or too (do those exist? Oregon Trail never said...), I have every reason (or at least, many good reasons) to keep marching forward.

My first challenge to myself for this blog, is to take each verse of this overwhelmingly positive poem and treat it as a reflective mantra. Whether I was in high-school theology class days (where we spent hours doing linguistic, textual, and historic analysis on biblical passages) or in a graduate-level rhetoric course, it was has always appeared self-evident to me that there is almost always something to be gained by analyzing passages or phrases. Some people don't like "in-depth" analysis of written works, printed art, film, music, etc... They want items of interest (be it a book or a picture) to "speak for itself," by either its plain language or objective appearance/sound. But once you realize that our languages enable us to describe things--even if it is an objective characterization--in a variety of ways that are usually synonymous to each other, but sometimes person A's description is more of an analog to B's description. While the words are not usually interchangeable, if B adds a few more words to A's description (filling in the analogy), then the two are on the same page with regards to what A is talking about.

This added cognitive step--this critical thinking which is fairly automatic for most people despite it's sophistication--is what should naturally give us audience members license to openly think critically. Whether we are writing or being written to, we will consciously and subconsciously be executing a multitude of incredibly complicated neurological and chemical orders in our brain. This is a fact. So why not just consciously analyze the many works that are presented to us? Perhaps we're afraid that one day our words--our very deliberate and purposeful words, are undermined by some obscure subtext that you in *no way* wanted to exist within your writing. But alas, some crazy professor somewhere, just wrote an extensive article arguing that that very subtext exists--and in fact, it's more than a subtext. Your work is apparently *all about* that theme you hated. Now, I won't even go into the possibility of a subconscious concern seeping into your writing oh-so-sneakily, that you powerless in your paranoia to detect it. But what I will go into is this... Your brain is incredible. So is mine. And so is hers! (whoever she is haha). The fact that she can piece together an elaborate and coherent theme throughout your work (despite the lack of intent on your part),  and manage to persuade others into seeing what she saw through qualitative analysis is remarkable. There will probably always be a question of whether or not the author or artist is the truest expert on his/her work? I certainly think the original authors/artists are in the best position to tell you their writing process, their hopes and goals while writing, and shed some (typically amusing) light on which items they had no clue had any kind of double-meaning. However, once work the work is published and subject to being read/listened to/seen, the artist is no longer  in control of the piece's future. It's in the public's domain now, and subject to hundreds, thousands, or even millions of other sophisticated minds processing your work.

Phew. So why did I go into all of this? Well, it's a bit of a defense for what I want to do here. I will be taking "Pioneers! O Pioneers!" and connecting its words, themes, and images to my life (if a connection can be said to exist). Hell, I'll even be talking about how it departs.

Further, this blog is generally going to be an exploration of my mind. I've been keeping a secret blog elsewhere on the internet, tracking my law school activities. Right now, it just feels like an online diary. Lots of moping, lots of anxiety, and not a lot of substantive writing. It's all about "woe is me" or "damn that class was hard." No shit. I'm a student in law school. :P At any rate, since this poem has been my go-to pick-me-up these past few months, I decided that I wanted to reawaken my old writing skills, dust off my copy of Leaves of Grass, and try to discover which frontiers are hidden in my life that are all-but waiting for me to discover them and fully experience. :)

So in the spirt of the above passage, so I have a pistol or a sharp-edged axe? Do I have the tools necessary to begin this journey of mine? I do believe I do. :) I have a heart that loves very quickly and deeply, and a mind that has proven to be very adaptive if given a fair amount of time to breath.

Thus, my heart shall be my pistol and my mind a sharp-edged axe. And I promise to wield both strongly and wisely. :)

-Miki