Do I contradict myself? Very well then I contradict myself,
(I am large, I contain multitudes.)
– Walt Whitman
Song of Myself, 51
Yes, this is a very popular quotation. I much prefer it when the line before the famous one is included. “Do I contradict myself? Very well, then I contradict myself.”
We have been told that we can hold two conflicting thoughts at once. A cute meme girl asks us why we can’t do both? People are stupid complicated. “I contain multitudes.” Got it.
But I love moving the focus from, “we are complicated,” to the unapologetic belief that being complicated is okay. “Do I contradict myself?” Yeah, I do, bitch. You have something to say about that? “I am large,” I get to fill the space I take up.
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