Loving

Only time for loving.

May 17, 2019

Mark Twain, looking back on his life:

“There isn’t time so brief is life for bickering, apologies, heart-burnings, calling to account there is only time for loving, but in an instant, so to speak, for that.” [1910]

 

Rilke:

“Brother body is poor…that means we must be rich for him.

He was often the rich one; so may he be forgiven

for the meanness of his wretched moments.

Then, when he acts as though he barely knows us,

may he be gently reminded of all that has been shared.

Of course, we are not one but two solitaries:

our consciousness and he.

But how much we have to thank each other for,

as friends do! And illness reminds us:

friendship demands a lot.” [Written between 1908 and 1923.]

 

Thomas Merton (insert medium of choice):

“I am certainly no judge of television, since I have never watched it. All I know is that there is a sufficiently general agreement, among men whose judgement I respect, that commercial television is degraded, meretricious, and absurd. Certainly, it would seem that TV could become a kind of unnatural surrogate for contemplation: a completely inert subjection to vulgar images, a descent to a sub-natural passivity rather than an ascent to a supremely active passivity in understanding and love. It would seem that television should be used with extreme care and discrimination by anyone who might hope to take interior life seriously. [1961]