David and Bathsheba, by Marc Chagall
Some of us have long felt continuities that have little in common with the course of history. We understand what is most distinctive in this fateful moment and what future it holds. But we, squeezed between yesterday and tomorrow, will we be mindful and receptive enough to participate in the unfolding of the larger movement?
Letter to Countess Marie von Thurn und Taxis-Hohenlohe
July 9, 1915
I wonder what 'larger movement' he writes about here.
ReplyDeleteIt has taken me a while to wrap my head around this. It may mean that some of us take "the road less traveled," but we must not disengage from (or, lose connectivity with) travelers on the main road. All of us participate in the shaping of our collective futures.
ReplyDeleteI think yours is a good take on it. As much as he could be accused of 'navel gazing' (as could I, ha), our own individual path and story is only part of a bigger whole.
ReplyDeletei think of the phrase "the work of one supports the work of the whole" and not only as applied to manual labour but also in the movement of mankind as a whole. if i were to characterize mankind i would say that we are not unlike someone in their mid teenage years. for better . . . and for worse! steven
ReplyDeletecould it be mindful living? this is what i see or want to see. i just came from Christopher's who speaks of the hundredth monkey and how there is a possibility in a shift of consciousness throughout society. possibility. i wonder if this is what rilke thinks of, changing the way we greet the day, the way we let it go.
ReplyDeletexo
erin