I had the pleasure of reading a few of Rilke's thoughts on Love and I found this one to be very interesting....I wanted to share and see if anyone agreed with these thoughts or disagreed...Ill give my opinion in a later post once I meditate over these thoughts a bit more....Looking forward to your comments....
"At bottom no one in life can help anyone else in life;this one experiences over and over in every conflict every perplexity: that one is alone.
All companionship can consist only in the strengthening of two neighboring solitudes, whereas everything that one is wont to call giving oneself is by nature harmful to companionship: for when a person abandons himself, he is no longer anything, and when two people both give themselves up in order to come close to each other, there is no longer any ground beneath them and their being together is a continual falling.
There is scarcely anything more difficult than to love one another. That is work, day labor, day labor, God knows there is no word for it. And look, added to this is the fact that young people are not prepared for such difficult loving; for convention has tried to make this most complicated and ultimate relationship into something easy and frivolous, has given it the appearance of everyones's being able to do it. It is not so. Love is something difficult and it is more difficult than other things because in other conflicts nature herself enjoins men to collect themselves, to take themselves firmly in hand with all their strength, while in the heightening of love the impulse is to give ones wholly away. But just think, can that be anything beautiful, to give oneself away not as something whole and ordered, but haphazard rather, bit by bit, as it comes? Can such giving away, that looks like a throwing away and dismemberment, be anything good, can it be happiness, joy progress? No, it cannot....When you give someone flowers, you arrange them beforehand, don't you? But young people who love each other fling themselves to each other in the impatience and haste of their passion, and they don't notice at all what a lack of mutual esteem lies in this disordered giving of themselves; they notice it with astonishment and indignation only from the dissension that arise between them out of all this disorder. And once there is disunity between them, the confusion grows with every day; neither of the two has anything unbroken, pure and unspoiled about him any longer, and amid the disconsolateness of a break they try to hold fast to the semblance of their happiness ( for all that was really supposed to be for the sake of happiness). Alas, they are scarcely able to recall anymore what they meant by happiness. In this uncertainty each becomes more and more unjust toward the other; they who wanted to do each other good are now handling one another in an imperious and intolerant manner, and in the struggle somehow to get out of their untenable and unbearable state of confusion, they commit the greatest fault that can happen to human relationships: they become impatient."
-Rainer Maria Rilke
Rilke on Love and Other Difficulties
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6 comments:
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I wish Eiehua that the world had thought in the way you have thought. Our world has so many brilliant studio photographers. But it pains me to see that their talents do not contribute significantly to the human race. My picture will make no difference as I am not 'famous'. But some famous people could have used their fame for doing good things. But they never did. It really calls for great commitment to be a Raghu Rai or John Issac. But unfortunately, a lot of talent is going to waste. What needs attention is always ignored. That is an unsaid rule of humanity.
Love, I believe, is the most beautiful, painful, mysterious, unpredictable, thing of life. And it is so important to understand oneself and love oneself. Otherwise one does not realise what one wants and what kind of people suits to one. And one can only love the world when one has loved oneself. One must mark that loving oneself is not always the same as being Narcissistic. One must love oneself. And if that love is not selfishness, that love will expand to the trees, the birds, the sky, the stars, and to the entire world around. It is THEN that one comes across ones true love and realises from the depth of ones heart whether one has met the right one or not. If you want something from the depth of your soul, the entire universe works hard to fulfil your dreams.
areee..where's your comment?
Where is that previous post? Anyway, it's good that you removed it. I avoid such intense personal issues on the public forum. Certain things simply can not be made public.
Nice new picture.
Yes the previous post was a revelation to myself that I needed to see in writing, now that I know what it is that my heart wants I dont think I need to have it be public. Thanks for the comment on the new picture. Hope to read a new post from you soon!
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