This is what you shall do: 

Love the earth and sun and the animals, 

despise riches, 

give alms to every one that asks, 

stand up for the stupid and crazy, 

devote your income and labor to others, 

hate tyrants, 

argue not concerning God, 

have patience and indulgence toward the people, 

go freely with powerful uneducated persons 

and with the young 

and with the mothers of families...

...and your very flesh shall be 

a great poem...

{from Preface to Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman}