About This Author
My name is Joy, and I love to write.
Why poetry, here? Because poetry uplifts its writer, and if she is lucky enough, her readers, too. Around us, so many objects abound to write about. Once a poet starts with a smallest, most trivial object, he shall discover that his pen will spill out what is most delicate or most majestic hidden inside him. Since the classics sometimes dealt with lofty subjects with a lofty language, a person with poetry in his soul may incline to emulate that. That is understandable. Poetry does that to a person: it enlarges the soul and gives it wings. Yet, to really soar, a poet needs to take off from the ground.
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Daily Cascade #1095579 added August 19, 2025 at 1:10pm Restrictions: None
On Contradicting Oneself
Prompt:
"Do I contradict myself? Very well, then I contradict myself, I am large, I contain multitudes."
Walt Whitman
What is Walt Whitman referring to in this quote and do you ever contradict yourself maybe to yourself?
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I have to ask the same question to myself. "Do I contradict myself?" Maybe I do, especially when I'm weighing the pros and cons of a situation or an idea. But then, this is a decision making process and just about anything is acceptable.
On the other hand, when it comes to airing in public one's stance or ideas, the decision-making excuse becomes invalid, if we keep contradicting ourselves. Also, I think contradicting oneself and changing one's mind are two different things, in the long run.
Contradicting oneself is like saying, "I believe strongly in free speech, except when it comes to opinions I disagree with." In a contradiction, reasoning and internal unity do not exist. It shows a lapse of logic and muddled thinking, momentary though it might be.
Such a contradiction may happens from lack of information, dishonesty, and holding two opposing thoughts or beliefs, unconscious though they might be. Worse yet, to others, it shows unreliability and lack of integrity; although I don't believe we can attribute such things to Walt Whitman, the originator of the quote.
Then, since I mentioned 'changing one's mind' above, on the second paragraph, let's look at changing one's mind. Changing one's mind is not the same as a contradiction. This is because it has to do with the evolution of our thinking and is conscious and deliberate. It happens when new information disproves earlier data. Recent space probes and new Nasa findings about outer space come to mind, for example.
Changing one's mind also shows growth, open-mindedness, maturity, and having gained experience. It may also take more time than a contradiction's immediacy. The ability to change one's mind has to do with a person's learning, which is so unlike living with and talking in contradictions.
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