Elizabeth,
It always fascinated me that the person to whom Rilke wrote those letters
disappeared into a French foreign legion post somewhere where there was
nothing but what Rilke advised him to cherish most: Silence.
Paul H. Dillon
----- Original Message -----
From: Elizabeth A Wardle <ewardle@iastate.edu>
To: <xmca@weber.ucsd.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, August 16, 2000 8:23 AM
Subject: Obliging Mike with Rilke
> At 08:30 PM 8/15/00 -0700, you wrote:
> >Rilke anyone?
> >mike
>
> In response to Mike's request:
>
> For all of you tearing your hair out over Yeats, units of analysis, etc.
> here is what Rilke would tell you, although I'm not sure he had enough of
a
> sense of humor to apply it to this situation:
>
> "I beg you..to have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and
> try to love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books
> written in a very foreign language. Don't search for the answers, which
> could not be given to you now, because you would not be able to live them.
> And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps
then,
> someday far in the future, you will gradually, without ever noticing it,
> live your way into the answer."
>
> _Letters to a Young Poet_ . Probably a tad out of context, but still still
> as apropos as ever! Although I am having trouble seeing how to *live*
> questions such as "What is a unit of analysis?". I'm sure it can be done.
> If you are one who understands how it can be done, just remember that
Rilke
> *also* said:
>
> "Rejoice in your growth, in which you naturally can take no one with you,
> and be kind to those who remain behind..."
>
> Elizabeth
>
> Elizabeth A. Wardle
> Rhetoric & Professional Communication Program
> Department of English
> Iowa State University of Science and Technology
> ewardle@iastate.edu
> www.public.iastate.edu/~ewardle/
>
> "Even if you are unable to equal the qualifications of great men, do not
> find reasons to live with the mediocrity within yourself."
> ~Baltasar Gracian, 1601-1658
>
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