Nothing captures the essence of all that we need to consider than Max Ehrmann‘s prose-poem Desiderata, meaning, things desired. The poem makes a series of wise statements. ‘Go placidly amid the noise and haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence’. This we will discover only if we learn to listen to the silence. ‘Speak your truth quietly and clearly and listen to others.’ While we are ready to speak, we shut our ears to what others have to say, leaving us that much poorer.
‘If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain and bitter for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.’ Profound – an exaggerated ego or a feeling of desolation does not help us grow as a person. ‘Be yourself,’ the poet exclaims. Competition and peer pressure compel us invariably to be everything other than what we really are.
‘Be at peace with God, whatever you conceive Him to be, in this noisy confusion of life, keep peace with your soul; with all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world’. When bitterness enters our soul, we cease the see beyond ourselves. Instead of being cheerful and striving to be happy, which is how the poem ends, we lead lives of loud desperation – a nuisance to others.
