tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4732202925039933709.post8211225028481227113..comments2023-07-21T05:31:02.451+02:00Comments on A Year with Rilke: Survival of the SoulRuthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14204074161539605133noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4732202925039933709.post-47904619854856375432011-04-16T04:47:12.574+02:002011-04-16T04:47:12.574+02:00What more can we accomplish now than the survival ...What more can we accomplish now than the survival of the soul.<br /><br />This is epic. Rilke.*https://www.blogger.com/profile/06484208765656281917noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4732202925039933709.post-27127594005607361202011-04-16T00:20:43.092+02:002011-04-16T00:20:43.092+02:00Those are both beautiful challenges, George. I wan...Those are both beautiful challenges, George. I want to meditate on them this weekend: what they mean, and very likely how they can function in tandem.Ruthhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14204074161539605133noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4732202925039933709.post-49867615897025951312011-04-15T23:02:12.891+02:002011-04-15T23:02:12.891+02:00This is something that has been weighing on my own...This is something that has been weighing on my own mind recently — the question of how an individual soul can survive, perhaps even flourish, in an increasingly hostile environment. One answer, I think, is to always live creatively in acts both large and small. The other wisdom that comes to mind is from Pascal: "In difficult times, you should always carry something beautiful in your mind."Georgehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03959953035812596907noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4732202925039933709.post-73823527190773266932011-04-15T20:55:20.954+02:002011-04-15T20:55:20.954+02:00Yes, death of a vision, as they say. I remember th...Yes, death of a vision, as they say. I remember the old Bill Gothard seminars, oh there is a blast from the past ....<br /><br />I'll look for the post at Oran's Well.Ruthhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14204074161539605133noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4732202925039933709.post-54191646675646981742011-04-15T20:40:36.328+02:002011-04-15T20:40:36.328+02:00How's the adage go? -- "Things got so muc...How's the adage go? -- "Things got so much better when I gave up hope." Gave up the expectation. The vision. Began to see what really is there. And go with that, like an explorer, like a lover, like a futurist, like a poet. I think I'll repost today a set of writings I thought are helpful for seeing what is on the horizon. Look for "For Present (and Past) Disorders, Therapeutic Jolts of Future Shock" - BrendanBrendanhttp://blueoran.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4732202925039933709.post-60691381283815382002011-04-15T18:13:23.110+02:002011-04-15T18:13:23.110+02:00O Brendan, your comment mixed with Rilke's let...O Brendan, your comment mixed with Rilke's letter passage: <i>perhaps a culture survives its own dying</i>. And where else can it, but the soul? What I hope hope hope, every day, and I don't mean just in the sense of <i>I hope this will happen</i>, but more in the sense of <i>believing</i> it, is that as things worsen (as harm becomes more apparent) our souls really are what heal the dying culture, not just make it survive. If I envision a dystopia as the worst scenario, even then I can see people bonded in love and caring. Somehow ripping away the illusion of utopia maybe helps us open to the new, the hope, the lack of bewilderment.<br /><br />I'm probably just stating the obvious!Ruthhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14204074161539605133noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4732202925039933709.post-39019058917276927672011-04-15T10:57:44.602+02:002011-04-15T10:57:44.602+02:00Reminds me of a line from Holderlin: Where there i...Reminds me of a line from Holderlin: <em>Where there is danger, there, too is hope.</em> Nothing like the outbreak of Europe's first modern holocaust to give accent to Rilke's "So much in collapse, so much in seeking new ways out." It also affords a ray of light into the present, where so much seems in inescapable decline. "Room for what new can happen." Room, inside collapse. And this: perhaps a culture survives its own dying. Rilke, a great admirer of Holderlin, perhaps saw the old foundations of Poetry collapsing in the First World War, and yet, as he wrote in "To Holderlin," found faith in that:<br /><br /><em>... Ah, what the greatest have longed for: you built it, free of desire,<br />stone upon stone, until it stood. And when it collapsed,<br />even then you weren’t bewildered.</em><br /><br />-- BrendanBrendanhttp://blueoran.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.com