What Would Uncle Walt Think?

“You’d be lost without your computers,” were the words that came from my 80-year-old father’s mouth yesterday as I told him I was trying to write more. In a world governed by technology that demands to be advanced, there’s no way to avoid computers and other gadgets. The stimuli of my dad’s days have become more than normal thanks to progress—they’ve become supernormal.

I recently learned the phrase “Supernormal Stimuli” from a book about habits. As defined by Wikipedia, “A supernormal stimulus or super-stimulus is an exaggerated version of a stimulus to which there is an existing response tendency, or any stimulus that elicits a response more strongly than the stimulus for which it evolved.” Essentially, it’s a regular stimulus, like a sound or a sight, that has been supercharged to grab a consumer’s attention.

Things like louder or more emotional music, brighter and better video games, and richer and sweeter foods to get that delectable Dopamine rush are supernormal stimuli. In a world saturated with things to get our attention, supernormal stimuli need to constantly outdo themselves to stay relevant. Personally, I don’t think these shinier things are having a positive effect on humanity’s progress.

The antithesis of progress is stagnation, which isn’t always a bad thing. Stagnation can happen when a person becomes content with the way things are. This got me thinking to a romantic literature class I took in college; specifically about a poet who made it his mission to find beauty in stagnation and glory in the ordinary.

Walt Whitman, a.k.a. Uncle Walt, was most famous for “Leaves of Grass”, but he also brought out the unique aspects of the mundane. His poem, “I Hear American Singing” features the worship of the everyday person working away. From mechanics and masons to mothers and daughters at home, there is unfound beauty.

What then, would Uncle Walt think of a world where Nature is seeming to disappear? Would he find it fitting to write or sing about the ever-growing dependence on electronics or the worship of celebrities and their affairs? What about the contrast between the Billionaires and the nearly Billion people across the world living below the poverty line?

I’m no Whitman expert, but I think he would have something to say. I think, more than he was in his lifetime, he would be on the side of the people. If I were Uncle Walt, I would say that while it’s mandatory to live in a cyber-world, there is more than plenty of room for Nature. I would say that without Nature, there would be no cyber, so celebrate both.

He would look at the rich and famous with indifference because the average Jane and Joe are the true celebrities. Who cares if everyone in the world knows your name and movies? Have you ever tilled a field or baled hay? Because those are the things that keep food on the table. The regular people that do so should be made famous for it.

Uncle Walt was an advocate for anti-slavery and Indigenous rights, among other things, so I’m certain he would have something to say about the wealth gap across the world. If I were him, I would celebrate those who struggle to survive paycheck to paycheck, day to day, because that’s what the American Dream has become for a lot of people.

My father reminds me of the pictures I’ve seen of Walt Whitman. He is old as a tree and has an unkempt look about him. My dad is also as wise as an aged poet. Maybe he is Uncle Walt’s reincarnation or something. He is an ordinary man, who is what I think what Whitman would choose to transform into. I’m sure Uncle Walt would agree that we’d “be lost without our computers”, but he would probably say we could find our map in Nature.