Rilke Part Deux

For it is not inertia alone that is responsible for human relationships repeating themselves from case to case, indescribably monotonous and unrenewed: it is shyness before any sort of new, unforeseeable experience with which one does not think oneself able to cope. But only someone who is ready for everything, who excludes nothing, not even the most enigmatical, will live the relation to another as something alive and will himself draw exhaustively from his own existence. For if we think of this existence of the individual as a larger or smaller room, it appears evident that most people learn to know only a corner of their room, a place by the window, a strip of floor on which they walk up and down. Thus they have a certain security. And yet that dangerous insecurity is so much more human which drives the prisoners in Poe's stories to feel out the shapes of their horrible dungeons and not be strangers to the unspeakable terror of their abode.

This guy is sick with profundity. That's right: "profundity!" I've since realized (from the first Rilke/poetry post) that this is not poetry. It is rather a letter. It is published in a book called Letters to a Young Poet. I really like Rilke, who, unbeknown to me, is "arguably the most important European poet of the modern age." Wow. Now that's praise.

Again, I say, I live by the Word of God, but there's nothing wrong with acknowledging truth where you find it. I sit here wondering if I'm pacing in the corner, not realizing that I am in a very large room. This almost relates to my study of faith. Like I've said before, we live beneath our privilege...in all senses (spiritually, physically, financially, emotionally, etc.) because we're so focused on "safety." I love the oxymoronic notion that there is danger in safety. But I see it. Do you see it? If you're ready for everything, does this mean you expect and or anticipate anything? Does this mean that you look at situations and even the sky is NOT the limit. Who decided we were so limited? And does our perception and acceptance of this supposed limitations keep us confined to a corner of a very large room? Food for thought.

In other news, Sasha and Lucia got married! It was wonderful. Shout out to them. Good luck! Tears today because they are moving to the great state of Illinois, awesome city of Chicago; this was the previous home of our President who lived in Hyde Park (where all the hardcore buppies live). I once aspired to be such a buppie. Yet, here I am in Arlington, VA. But hey, I'm trying to get out of my corner, I'm expecting wildly awesome things in DC Metro, even the most enigmatical.

Side note: red lines appeared beneath both "oxymoronic" and "enigmatical." Come now. These are words!