Dear Friends,
This poem by Walt Whitman is an exuberant salutation to the world and may inspire you to embrace strangers on the street!
Crossing Brooklyn Ferry
FLOOD-TIDE below me! I watch you face to face;
Clouds of the west! sun there half an hour high! I see you also face
to face.
Crowds of men and women attired in the usual costumes! how curious
you are to me!
On the ferry-boats, the hundreds and hundreds that cross, returning
home, are more curious to me than you suppose;
And you that shall cross from shore to shore years hence, are more to
me, and more in my meditations, than you might suppose.
The impalpable sustenance of me from all things, at all hours of the
day;
The simple, compact, well-join’d scheme–myself disintegrated, every
one disintegrated, yet part of the scheme:
The similitudes of the past, and those of the future;
The glories strung like beads on my smallest sights and hearings–on
the walk in the street, and the passage over the river;
The current rushing so swiftly, and swimming with me far away;
The others that are to follow me, the ties between me and them;
The certainty of others–the life, love, sight, hearing of others.
Others will enter the gates of the ferry, and cross from shore to shore;
Others will watch the run of the flood-tide;
Others will see the shipping of Manhattan north and west, and the heights of Brooklyn to the south and east;
Others will see the islands large and small;
Fifty years hence, others will see them as they cross, the sun half an hour high;
A hundred years hence, or ever so many hundred years hence, others
will see them,
Will enjoy the sunset, the pouring in of the flood-tide, the falling
back to the sea of the ebb-tide.
It avails not, neither time or place–distance avails not;
I am with you, you men and women of a generation, or ever so many
generations hence;
I project myself–also I return–I am with you, and know how it is.
Just as you feel when you look on the river and sky, so I felt;
Just as any of you is one of a living crowd, I was one of a crowd;
Just as you are refresh’d by the gladness of the river and the bright
flow, I was refresh’d;
Just as you stand and lean on the rail, yet hurry with the swift
current, I stood, yet was hurried;
Just as you look on the numberless masts of ships, and the thick-
stem’d pipes of steamboats, I look’d.
I too many and many a time cross’d the river, the sun half an hour
high;
I watched the Twelfth-month sea-gulls–I saw them high in the air,
floating with motionless wings, oscillating their bodies,
I saw how the glistening yellow lit up parts of their bodies, and
left the rest in strong shadow,
I saw the slow-wheeling circles, and the gradual edging toward the
south.
I too saw the reflection of the summer sky in the water,
Had my eyes dazzled by the shimmering track of beams,
Look’d at the fine centrifugal spokes of light around the shape of my
head in the sun-lit water,
Look’d on the haze on the hills southward and southwestward,
Look’d on the vapor as it flew in fleeces tinged with violet,
Look’d toward the lower bay to notice the arriving ships,
Saw their approach, saw aboard those that were near me,
Saw the white sails of schooners and sloops–saw the ships at anchor,
The sailors at work in the rigging, or out astride the spars,
The round masts, the swinging motion of the hulls, the slender
serpentine pennants,
The large and small steamers in motion, the pilots in their pilot-
houses,
The white wake left by the passage, the quick tremulous whirl of the
wheels,
The flags of all nations, the falling of them at sun-set,
The scallop-edged waves in the twilight, the ladled cups, the
frolicsome crests and glistening,
The stretch afar growing dimmer and dimmer, the gray walls of the
granite store-houses by the docks,
On the river the shadowy group, the big steam-tug closely flank’d on
each side by the barges–the hay-boat, the belated lighter,
On the neighboring shore, the fires from the foundry chimneys burning
high and glaringly into the night,
Casting their flicker of black, contrasted with wild red and yellow
light, over the tops of houses, and down into the clefts of
streets.
These, and all else, were to me the same as they are to you;
I project myself a moment to tell you–also I return.
I loved well those cities;
I loved well the stately and rapid river;
The men and women I saw were all near to me;
Others the same–others who look back on me, because I look’d forward
to them;
(The time will come, though I stop here to-day and to-night.)
What is it, then, between us?
What is the count of the scores or hundreds of years between us?
Whatever it is, it avails not–distance avails not, and place avails
not.
I too lived–Brooklyn, of ample hills, was mine;
I too walk’d the streets of Manhattan Island, and bathed in the
waters around it;
I too felt the curious abrupt questionings stir within me,
In the day, among crowds of people, sometimes they came upon me,
In my walks home late at night, or as I lay in my bed, they came upon
me.
I too had been struck from the float forever held in solution;
I too had receiv’d identity by my Body;
That I was, I knew was of my body–and what I should be, I knew I
should be of my body.
It is not upon you alone the dark patches fall,
The dark threw patches down upon me also;
The best I had done seem’d to me blank and suspicious;
My great thoughts, as I supposed them, were they not in reality
meagre? would not people laugh at me?
It is not you alone who know what it is to be evil;
I am he who knew what it was to be evil;
I too knitted the old knot of contrariety,
Blabb’d, blush’d, resented, lied, stole, grudg’d,
Had guile, anger, lust, hot wishes I dared not speak,
Was wayward, vain, greedy, shallow, sly, cowardly, malignant;
The wolf, the snake, the hog, not wanting in me,
The cheating look, the frivolous word, the adulterous wish, not
wanting,
Refusals, hates, postponements, meanness, laziness, none of these
wanting.
But I was Manhattanese, friendly and proud!
I was call’d by my nighest name by clear loud voices of young men as
they saw me approaching or passing,
Felt their arms on my neck as I stood, or the negligent leaning of
their flesh against me as I sat,
Saw many I loved in the street, or ferry-boat, or public assembly,
yet never told them a word,
Lived the same life with the rest, the same old laughing, gnawing,
sleeping,
Play’d the part that still looks back on the actor or actress,
The same old role, the role that is what we make it, as great as we
like,
Or as small as we like, or both great and small.
Closer yet I approach you;
What thought you have of me, I had as much of you–I laid in my
stores in advance;
I consider’d long and seriously of you before you were born.
Who was to know what should come home to me?
Who knows but I am enjoying this?
Who knows but I am as good as looking at you now, for all you cannot
see me?
It is not you alone, nor I alone;
Not a few races, nor a few generations, nor a few centuries;
It is that each came, or comes, or shall come, from its due emission,
From the general centre of all, and forming a part of all:
Everything indicates–the smallest does, and the largest does;
A necessary film envelopes all, and envelopes the Soul for a proper
time.
Now I am curious what sight can ever be more stately and admirable to
me than my mast-hemm’d Manhattan,
My river and sun-set, and my scallop-edg’d waves of flood-tide,
The sea-gulls oscillating their bodies, the hay-boat in the twilight,
and the belated lighter;
Curious what Gods can exceed these that clasp me by the hand, and
with voices I love call me promptly and loudly by my nighest
name as I approach;
Curious what is more subtle than this which ties me to the woman or
man that looks in my face,
Which fuses me into you now, and pours my meaning into you.
We understand, then, do we not?
What I promis’d without mentioning it, have you not accepted?
What the study could not teach–what the preaching could not
accomplish, is accomplish’d, is it not?
What the push of reading could not start, is started by me
personally, is it not?
Flow on, river! flow with the flood-tide, and ebb with the ebb-tide!
Frolic on, crested and scallop-edg’d waves!
Gorgeous clouds of the sun-set! drench with your splendor me, or the
men and women generations after me;
Cross from shore to shore, countless crowds of passengers!
Stand up, tall masts of Mannahatta!–stand up, beautiful hills of
Brooklyn!
Throb, baffled and curious brain! throw out questions and answers!
Suspend here and everywhere, eternal float of solution!
Gaze, loving and thirsting eyes, in the house, or street, or public
assembly!
Sound out, voices of young men! loudly and musically call me by my
nighest name!
Live, old life! play the part that looks back on the actor or
actress!
Play the old role, the role that is great or small, according as one
makes it!
Consider, you who peruse me, whether I may not in unknown ways be
looking upon you;
Be firm, rail over the river, to support those who lean idly, yet
haste with the hasting current;
Fly on, sea-birds! fly sideways, or wheel in large circles high in
the air;
Receive the summer sky, you water! and faithfully hold it, till all
downcast eyes have time to take it from you;
Diverge, fine spokes of light, from the shape of my head, or any
one’s head, in the sun-lit water;
Come on, ships from the lower bay! pass up or down, white-sail’d
schooners, sloops, lighters!
Flaunt away, flags of all nations! be duly lower’d at sunset;
Burn high your fires, foundry chimneys! cast black shadows at
nightfall! cast red and yellow light over the tops of the
houses;
Appearances, now or henceforth, indicate what you are;
You necessary film, continue to envelop the soul;
About my body for me, and your body for you, be hung our divinest
aromas;
Thrive, cities! bring your freight, bring your shows, ample and
sufficient rivers;
Expand, being than which none else is perhaps more spiritual;
Keep your places, objects than which none else is more lasting.
We descend upon you and all things–we arrest you all;
We realize the soul only by you, you faithful solids and fluids;
Through you color, form, location, sublimity, ideality;
Through you every proof, comparison, and all the suggestions and
determinations of ourselves.
You have waited, you always wait, you dumb, beautiful ministers! you
novices!
We receive you with free sense at last, and are insatiate
henceforward;
Not you any more shall be able to foil us, or withhold yourselves
from us;
We use you, and do not cast you aside–we plant you permanently
within us;
We fathom you not–we love you–there is perfection in you also;
You furnish your parts toward eternity;
Great or small, you furnish your parts toward the soul.
-Walt Whitman
photos of the day
May 19, 2011
A horse works out during early-morning training at Pimlico Race Track in Baltimore. The 136th running of the Preakness Stakes will take place at Pimlico on May 21.
Molly Riley/Reuters
Four lion cubs sit in a basket as they are christened at Hagenbecks zoo in Hamburg, Germany. The cubs, named Bandele, Batou, Naledi and Sakina, were born on January 31.
Fabian Bimmer/Reuters
Market Commentary:
Canada
By Matt Walcoff
May 19 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks rose for a fourth day as dividend-paying stocks gained on speculation the Bank of Canada will be slow to raise interest rates and transportation companies advanced as fuel prices fell.
Rogers Communications Inc., Canada’s biggest wireless provider, increased 1.9 percent after UBS AG said the country may delay changes to foreign-ownership restrictions in the telecommunications industry. Canadian National Railway Co., the country’s biggest railroad, rallied 1.6 percent as crude oil fell 1.7 percent. Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan Inc., the world’s largest fertilizer producer by market value, dropped 2.9 percent as corn retreated for the first time in six days.
The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index climbed 17.84 points, or 0.1 percent, to 13,625.09.
“People are looking for yield, and I think they are going to look for larger names, what are perceived to be safer names, in the Canadian market,” said Andrew Pyle, who helps manage C$200 million ($206 million) as an associate portfolio manager for Scotia McLeod in Peterborough, Ontario. “Even some of the lower-dividend-yielding stocks you see of a pickup in demand for because of this pullback in interest rates.”
The S&P/TSX rose 1.7 percent this week through yesterday as investors took advantage of the lowest share prices relative to earnings in six months and oil, copper and agricultural commodities rebounded. The stock benchmark remained down 3.6 percent for the quarter as of yesterday’s close.
Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney gave a “generally pessimistic” speech at a fund-raising dinner yesterday, Avery Shenfeld, an economist at Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, said in an e-mail message to clients today.
Shenfeld later sent an e-mail asking people not to cite his earlier message because it was an “off the record” event.
David Tulk, a strategist at Toronto-Dominion Bank, said on May 17 that the central bank probably won’t raise its benchmark rate until September. TD had previously forecast a July interest rate boost.
Indexes of S&P/TSX financial, telecommunications and pipeline stocks, each of which has a dividend yield of at least 3.4 percent, gained.
TD, Canada’s second-largest bank, advanced for a fifth day, climbing 0.6 percent to C$83.97. Manulife Financial Corp., North America’s fourth-largest insurer, increased 0.7 percent to C$17.59.
Wireless carriers rose after Phillip Huang, an analyst at UBS, said the appointment of Christian Paradis as Canada’s industry minister may hold up the government’s review of foreign-ownership rules.
Rogers gained 1.9 percent to C$37.45. BCE Inc., Canada’s largest phone company, advanced 1 percent from a 32-month high to C$39.
Transportation companies gained as crude futures retreated to less than $99 a barrel in New York.
CN increased 1.6 percent to a record C$74.83. Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd., the country’s second-biggest railroad, climbed 0.7 percent to C$60.06. Transat A.T. Inc., the owner of Air Transat, surged 6.6 percent to C$12.39.
Fertilizer producers fell today as corn and wheat dropped after surging 10 percent and 12 percent, respectively, this week through yesterday.
Potash Corp. declined 2.9 percent to C$51.93. Agrium Inc., Canada’s second-largest fertilizer producer, lost 1.5 percent to C$78.49.
BlackBerry maker Research In Motion Ltd. fell 2.8 percent to C$42.87 after market-research firm Gartner Inc. said its share of the global smartphone market fell to 13 percent last quarter from 20 percent a year earlier.
Electronic-whiteboard maker Smart Technologies Inc. sank 28 percent to C$6.79, the lowest level since its July initial public offering, after saying it lost 2 cents a share in the fourth quarter, excluding certain items. All eight analysts in a Bloomberg survey had forecast a profit. Analysts at Cowen Group Inc. and Piper Jaffray Cos. cut their ratings on the company to “neutral.
US
By Rita Nazareth
May 19 (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks advanced, sending the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index higher for a second straight day, as a government report showing a bigger-than-forecast drop in jobless claims bolstered optimism about the economic recovery.
LinkedIn Corp., the largest professional-networking website, more than doubled in the first day of trading after its initial public offering. Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. jumped 4.2 percent after agreeing to buy Phadia AB for about $3.5 billion to grow in testing for allergies and autoimmune diseases. Intel Corp., KLA-Tencor Corp. and Applied Materials Inc. slumped at least 1.1 percent as Goldman Sachs Group Inc. cut their ratings amid increased competition and excess supply.
The S&P 500 advanced 0.2 percent to 1,343.60 at 4 p.m. in New York after yesterday posting the biggest gain in three weeks. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 45.14 points, or 0.4 percent, to 12,605.32, erasing an earlier 27-point decline.
“The rally will accelerate,” said Philip Orlando, the New York-based chief equity market strategist at Federated Investors Inc., which oversees $358.2 billion. “We had an excellent jobless claims number, which tells me that we’re going to see a solid jobs report. The Fed has indicated that it will be vigilant and watching the pace of jobs recovery. I don’t believe we’ll see a QE3. Still, we’ll continue with easy policy.”
The S&P 500 has risen 6.8 percent in 2011 amid higher-than estimated earnings and government stimulus measures. Chairman Ben S. Bernanke and the Federal Open Market Committee plan to complete a $600 billion bond purchase program, known as quantitative easing or “QE” on Wall Street, in June while holding interest rates “exceptionally low” for an “extended period,” according to a Fed statement last month. They have yet to settle on a plan for withdrawing stimulus.
Stock futures rose before the start of regular trading as a report showed that fewer Americans than forecast filed applications for unemployment benefits last week. Jobless claims declined by 29,000 to 409,000 in the week ended May 14. The median estimate of economists in a Bloomberg News survey called for a drop to 420,000.
Earlier today, stocks turned lower after a report showed that sales of existing homes unexpectedly declined in April, indicating the industry is struggling to gain traction as the economy expands. Separate figures showed that manufacturing in the Philadelphia unexpectedly grew in May at the slowest pace in seven months, a sign the world’s largest economy may get less of a boost from the industry that led it out of the recession.
The index of U.S. leading indicators fell in April after nine months of gains, depressed by a pickup in jobless claims that reflects temporary setbacks including auto-plant shutdowns.
The Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index declined to minus 49.4 in the period to May 15, the worst reading since August, from the prior week’s minus 46.9.
“There’s not much to get excited about,” said Hayes Miller, the Boston-based head of asset allocation in North America at Baring Asset Management Inc., which oversees $51.6 billion. “We’ve seen some net negative surprises in recent economic indicators. People are questioning if this is only a downward blip. Chances are we’ll work through this. For the time being, we’ve increased the defensiveness of our portfolio.”
LinkedIn more than doubled, surging 109 percent to $94.25.
The Mountain View, California-based company sold 7.84 million shares at $45 each, according to a statement released yesterday.
The company had raised the proposed range for the share sale on May 17, to $42 to $45 each from $32 to $35. The sale raised $352.8 million. The ticker symbol is LNKD.
Thermo Fisher Scientific jumped 4.2 percent to $65.38.
Thermo is buying Phadia from Cinven Ltd., a London-based private equity firm, and expects the deal to close in the fourth quarter, the Waltham, Massachusetts-based company said in a statement today. The agreement will immediately add to adjusted profit and contribute as much as 30 cents a share next year, Thermo said.
BlackRock Inc. rallied 2.5 percent to $198.10. Bank of America Corp., the largest U.S. lender by assets, agreed to sell its remaining stake in BlackRock back to the world’s biggest money manager for about $2.5 billion. Bank of America acquired a 34 percent stake in BlackRock when it took over Merrill Lynch & Co. in 2009 and has been gradually reducing its holdings.
The deal dissolves the last of what once had been a 49.8 percent stake in BlackRock acquired by Merrill Lynch in September 2006, in exchange for the brokerage’s fund-management unit. The transaction will be completed about June 1, BlackRock said. The stock will be retired, which will immediately boost BlackRock’s earning per share, the statement said.
Global per-share earnings will rise 18 percent this year, faster than an earlier forecast, amid stronger revenue growth and sustained margins, according to Citigroup Inc. Earnings per share, or EPS, are estimated to increase 11 percent in 2012 and 9 percent in 2013, analysts led by Robert Buckland, Citigroup’s chief global strategist, wrote in a report yesterday.
“Companies are generating faster revenue growth than we originally expected,” Buckland said in the report. “In addition, cautious cost management means that current margins are at least sustainable for now.”
Intel slumped 1.4 percent to $23.54. Goldman Sachs lowered its rating on the world’s largest chipmaker, to “sell” from “neutral” yesterday. The bank said its analysis shows that processors out-shipped PCs by about 10 percent in the first quarter. It said Intel’s longer-term threat is from tablets such as Apple Inc.’s iPad, which run on ARM-based chips, eating into the PC market.
“We are most concerned about the impact of tablets, as we continue to believe that roughly one-third of tablets are cannibalistic to PCs,” Goldman Sachs’s statement said.
Goldman Sachs downgraded KLA to “sell” from “neutral,” citing its vulnerability to weakness at Intel. Applied Materials was cut to “neutral” from “buy” because of lower 2012 capital spending by chip makers. The bank said orders for semiconductors are likely to decline in the next six quarters.
KLA dropped 3.8 percent to $41.21, while Applied Materials slid 1.2 percent to $14.33.
Big Lots Inc. tumbled 11 percent, the most since December 2008, to $33.77. The Wall Street Journal said yesterday that bids from buyout firms came in lower than anticipated. Timothy Johnson, a spokesman for the Columbus, Ohio-based company, declined to comment.
Have a wonderful day everyone.
Be magnificent!
With closed eyes, I have come to this last thought:
even while I am unconscious in sleep, the dance of life will continue in the silent field of my sleeping body, in the same rhythm as the stars above.
My heart beats, my blood courses through my arteries, and the millions of atoms that live in my body will vibrate in time with the harp that quivers under the fingers of the great Master.
-Rabindranath Tagore, 1861-1901
As ever,
Carolann
It is a capital mistake to theorize before
one has data. Insensibly one begins to
twist facts to suit theories, instead of
theories to suit facts.
-Arthur Conan Doyle, 1859-1930
Carolann Steinhoff, B.Sc., CFP, CIM, FCSI
Senior Vice-President &
Senior Investment Advisor
The pack of riders pedal during the 130-mile 19th stage of the Giro d’Italia cycling race from Bergamo to Macugnaga.
A monkey drinks water from a tap on a hot summer afternoon in Jammu, India.
Buddhists carry candles while encircling a large Buddha statue during Vesak Day, an annual celebration of Buddha’s birth, enlightenment and death, at a temple in Nakhon Pathom province on the outskirts of Bangkok, Thailand. This year is the 2600th anniversary of Buddha’s enlightenment.
