The Procreant Urge
Why is quitting the hardest thing? Because of:
Urge and urge and urge,
Always the procreant urge of the world.
We like to imagine our heroes always doing that hardest thing—walking away with their glory intact. We didn’t like it when, a few years after supposedly retiring with the Chicago Bulls, Michael Jordan donned a Washington Wizards jersey. It bothers us that The Godfather: Part III exists. R.E.M. broke up last month, but many fans will say they hung around a decade and a half too long. Willie Mays’s 22 seasons went from excellent to good to mediocre to “Oh, Willie…”
We should never be surprised when this happens. The fuel that drives people to greatness, what Walt Whitman so perfectly called “the procreant urge,” does not stop flowing when talent declines. For the greats, it never stops. “Song of Myself,” the poem where these lines appear, was first published in 1855. The version open next to me right now is the 1881 version. He revised it until he died. Urge and urge and urge: Whitman knew the feeling well.
Click on the link and read the whole thing - it’s a great essay.
