Rilke Mashup: Solitude

Solitude
a state of seclusion or isolation with intense self analysis.
1.

2.

... most people come to know only one corner of their room, one spot near the window, one narrow strip on which they keep walking back and forth.

3.

When I'm by myself, I can be myself, and my life is coming but I don't know when.

4.

This meant establishing a clear division between the soul and the body.

5.

6.

"The point of marriage is not to create a quick commonality by tearing down all boundaries; on the contrary, a good marriage is one in which each partner appoints the other to be the guardian of his solitude, and thus they show each other the greatest possible trust. A merging of two people is an impossibility, and where it seems to exist, it is a hemming-in, a mutual consent that robs one party or both parties of their fullest freedom and development. But once the realization is accepted that even between the closest people infinite distances exist, a marvelous living side-by-side can grow up for them, if they succeed in loving the expanse between them, which gives them the possibility of always seeing each other as a whole and before an immense sky."

7.

Even I, like the Curtis children, harbored a suspicion it was my mother's fault when my father disappeared... Too much the good daughter, I never formed a verbal accusation but I allowed my secret blame to color our relationship for years. And then at some point I lost the energy to blame and decided to believe that... they had found a kind of joy with each other.

8.

Therefore, dear Sir, love your solitude and try to sing out with the pain it causes you. For those who are near you are far away... and this shows that the space around you is beginning to grow vast.... be happy about your growth...

9.

10.

The necessary thing is after all but this; solitude, great inner solitude. Going into oneself for hours meeting no one - this one must be able to attain.

11.

For all these things, there is an infinite span of time. In endless time, all things can be accomplished. Thus all things can wait.

12. 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.

13.

History shows that the majority of people that have done anything great have passed their youth in seclusion.

14.

... there is only one solitude, and it is vast, heavy, difficult to bear, and almost everyone has hours when he would gladly exchange it for any kind of sociability, however trivial or cheap, for the tiniest outward agreement with the first person who comes along...

Works Cited
1. Laying Down the Lawlessness (Blog)
2. Rilke, Rainer Maria, and Stephen Mitchell. Letters to a Young Poet. New York: Modern Library, 2001. Print.
3. Butler, Win. "Empty Room." The Suburbs. Arcade Fire. 2010. MP3.
4. Gaarder, Jostein. Sophie's World. New York: Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 1994.
5. EveForeverYoung. "I Want to Live Where Soul Meets Body." www.polyvore.com, 2009.
6. Rilke, Rainer Maria
7. Wiggins, Marianne. The Shadow Catcher. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2007. Print.
8. Rilke, Rainer Maria
9. Tame Impala. "Solitude Is Bliss." Innerspeaker. 2010. YouTube. 16 May 2010. Web. .
10. Rilke, Rainer Maria
11. Lightman, Alan P. Einstein's Dreams. New York: Pantheon, 1993. Print.
12. Rilke, Rainer Maria
13. Carlyle, Thomas
14. Rilke, Rainer Maria

Best of Week: Do You Mind?

Out of all the assignments I've done in a classroom setting, Do You Mind? has to be the most enjoyable. Not only do I get freedom of creativity, but I also am beginning to learn a lot about myself through the questions.
The types of questions in a typical Do You Mind? day are not easy to answer. They require me to actually think about my response. For instance, who does owe me an apology? Have I ever really thought of that? I have no reason to lie in these questions because I am the only one who will see them. With that in mind, I find myself answering 100% truthfully. Sometimes the things I write have never even crossed my mind before that day.
I've pinned down why this phenomenon of my self-analysis comes from: The phrasing of the questions. A question like "Who owes you an apology?" is worded to make me think someone owes me an apology. If the question were "Does anyone owe you an apology?" then I might not have written down what I did that day.
I know it seems weird, but I feel as if these questions are helping me move on from high school. They're allowing me to tie up any loose ends that I might have by making me say/write what I truly feel. People lie, but when the only judge is yourself, there's no reason not to be honest.

Blogging Around! LATE PASS

First I looked at my good friend Doug Cummings' blog where he spoke about appreciating art by creating your own understanding.

Doug,
I agree with you in that dancing is very difficult for me. It's hard to not feel awkward when moving your body to a rhythm or beat. I also used to find watching dancing awkward until I watched this film.
Dancing, like most forms of art, is pretty subjective, so I think you and I learned a great deal by learning to make our own understanding of a piece before we judge it. Appreciation of art stems directly from understanding the art.

Next I went to Benjy Wax's blog where he wrote about the kids he's met in gym.
Benjy,
This is a really great thing to talk about especially with our class going off to college next year. I feel like gym class can be likened to the first day of college where you are forced to meet and work with people you normally would not. By realizing this, I feel like you're putting yourself in a great position to make friends early next school year.