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EVERY ANGEL IS TERRIFYING

EVERY ANGEL IS TERRIFYING

Duino Elegies–Ranier Maria Rilke

Whatever You Call The In Between

Whatever You Call The In Between

January 3, 2024 Jerry King Comments 2 comments

Midweek and I am unsure what to write.  Uncertainty is the rule, the rule that overrides all else most of the time.

Read a passage translated from Aristotle’s Ethics I 1094b which is famously and often quoted.  The philosopher writes that we should measure our judgment to the particular topic at hand.  Our expectations often skew our judgment. Thus our conclusion misses the mark.  Why would I demand a certain and precise conclusion from a story teller, or a more or less correct conclusion from a mathematician?

Perhaps language itself seduces us to binary thinking, that there has to be a single right answer for everything.

This is a elegant poem, offering for our examination on a poetic platter, a collection of binary descriptors which are always at hand for our use.  Again I am reminded of the wisdom of Heraclitus of Ephesus: the way up and the way down are one and the same.

See-Saw

by
Angela Hoffman

You rarely find them in parks anymore,
having been deemed too dangerous,
as the person at the bottom, when they hit ground
with a jolt,
would cause the other on the high end to become suspended
momentarily, from their seat.
But it’s the way life goes with its ups and downs:
hope/despair
trust/betrayal
give/take
truth/lies
life/death
joy/suffering
faith/doubt
in/out
and whatever you call the in between—
the rhythm of day-by-day living.

I do not think that removing see-saws from parks eliminates the trauma which life delivers.  Along the arc of a lifetime one will often be suspended in midair, or suddenly plummeted to the earth.

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2 thoughts on “Whatever You Call The In Between”

  1. Roger Breisch says:
    January 3, 2024 at 1:57 PM

    Ah yes…life is a series of suspensions and plummetings!

    Reply
    1. Jerry King says:
      January 3, 2024 at 11:07 PM

      One more thought from Marcus Aurelius: Everything you hear is an opinion, and everything you see is a perspective.

      Reply

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