Song of the Open Road

" Allons! the road is before us!
  It is safe—I have tried it—my own feet have tried it well—be not
      detain'd!
  Let the paper remain on the desk unwritten, and the book on the
      shelf unopen'd!
  Let the tools remain in the workshop! let the money remain unearn'd!
  Let the school stand! mind not the cry of the teacher!
  Let the preacher preach in his pulpit! let the lawyer plead in the
      court, and the judge expound the law.

  Camerado, I give you my hand!
  I give you my love more precious than money,
  I give you myself before preaching or law;
  Will you give me yourself? will you come travel with me?
  Shall we stick by each other as long as we live?"
-"Song of the Open Road", Walt Whitman

Though Whitman clearly did not know of Personal Learning Networks, my experience dipping my toes into this world of opportunity reminds me of his words.  In an age of digital footprints and multimedia interconnectivity, it seems we are constantly being invited to a journey of newness and discovery.  Simultaneously, the old paradigms (papers, books, tools, teachers) are being reinvented or left behind. 

Perhaps Harold Bloom's words, "If you are American, then Walt Whitman is your imaginative father and mother", ring as true for the digital age as they might have for previous generations.  As before, we find ourselves on a road with no fixed destination, no fixed route, a road marked by plurality and equivocity rather than singularity or univocity. 

The lesson I hear is quite clear: tweet, blog, collaborate, create, share, but whatever you do - get out on that road.