Ayn Rand 101 Years

[AMERICONORMAN]

I chose to put this topic under the category of Religion because for a serious student of Objectivism, the philosophy takes the place of where religion once was or where it could have lay. Since Ayn Rand is the originator of that philosophy, the fountainhead, if you like, it is fitting to discuss her birthday here. Ayn Rand herself felt for her philosophy and man and reality with the same passion that serios religious men feel for their religion, often shown as the epitome of loyal passion, for example in the figure of Joan of Ark. Ayn Rand discusses her position on the religious feeling in her introduction to The Fountainhead (25 years), one of my favorite things I know she has written.

I thought this would be a good way to inspire people here to spend some time of contemplation about Miss Rand. Perhaps if you would like to share, in what ever literary genre you like, why you love Ayn Rand? "What has she done for me lately?"

Lately, thinking of her inspired a poem in me, that I wrote today, which is my form of tribute to her. I hope others answer the question in which ever way you please.

AYN RAND 101

By Jose Gainza

I felt one day the gift that you could bring.

I fell one day from the cloud that I was in,

As you struck me like a lightning bolted sting,

Plucked me from the fog that blocked my sin.

I was raindrops, tear drops, tears of joy …

I grew wings, floated, fluttered back to earth,

To find the promise of your love and not a ploy,

For the force bubbling in me where is mirth.

There was the promise of a healthy happiness,

There, the esteem, though hiding, of my mind,

And liberty was the beacon to my bliss,

And gold became a product of my reasoned selfishness.

I do know why I love you like I do—

I do know why and it’s true.

I do know why you thrill me like you do—

I do know why and you too.

Yes, you love me to the range that I’m a man,

Though, you left our world in nineteen eighty-two.

Yes, you graced us with a gift of worldly span

For every able minded will to learn it too.

In Howard Roark bestowed was your “religion”,

Despite a world that would surely call you Sin:

The independence of a man to his good vision,

And integrity to create the world that you can win.

With Dominique you alienated heaven,

A realm on earth where mirth is felt alone;

A work of self-esteem branding earthly heaven;

A joy persists despite her melancholy drone.

I do know why I love you like I do—

I do know why and it’s true.

I do know why you thrill me like you do—

I do know why and you too.

It was the promise of Francisco very soon,

Those early pages of a boy, a prodigy,

The money-maker and the boy with silver spoon,

Who caught me to your rebirth poetry.

“Atlas Shrugged changed my life,” so often said.

The promise-wish of sages past with Galt became fulfilled:

A perfect moral man made real—though not dead.

Thus the John Galt line is mine; this be my guild.

I saw a world where happiness is real.

I knew for sure how needed is the mind;

I felt the innocence to feel a self-love real;

I learned money was the best way to be greedy but so kind.

I do know why I love you like I do—

I do know why and it’s true.

I do know why you thrill me like you do—

I do know why and you too.

Though now you lay still in your plotted ground,

One aspect of your spirit I will always keep

In my mind, as a function, guiding me around:

The gem of “plot” to plunge into the thrilling deep.

I know of causes of some ocean voyages.

I know the fountainhead of dwellings tall.

To lose Roxanne I know the vital series.

I know the reason why New York was lost to all.

I know conflict at the core of man’s excitement.

I know how cool it is to watch the stakes grow high.

To clash opposing values is a magnet-merriment,

And to bang inside of men is an explosion in the sky.

I do know why I love you like I do—

I do know why and it’s true.

I do know why you thrill me like you do—

I do know why and you too.

Even more than the fact that we exist,

Of value is to me is how you think.

To think and know men freely must persist,

Straight ahead and not falling from the brink.

I need not pray for a model far away,

Too far, even further than Plato’s silly dream

To know the things before me that can’t stay

Coz they stay but only by a common seam.

And by contrast to near like things

Our concepts glow with a solid essence,

As they are chained to earth by single things,

And open the universe to common sense.

I do know why I love you like I do—

I do know why and it’s true.

I do know why you thrill me like you do—

I do know why and you too.

[StarBuck]

Amazing!