see you all in september!
13 August 2008
09 August 2008
tributes 7, 8, 9
this is a long post... i do apologise beforehand, but perhaps it makes up for my complete lack of posting recently? i've been in DC looking for a job, emphasis on the looking - i'll let you know when i find one!
all actual life is encounter.
this is a quote from martin buber, a jewish philosopher who worked in the first half of the 20th century. he is hands down my favourite thinker. what i find so powerful in buber's writing is his belief that true existence, the core of reality and meaning in life is found in the relationships between man and man, and between man and God. the latter relationship is discussed by other philosophers, and is of course in no way unique to buber. kierkegaard's ideology rests on the relationship between the "single one" and God, but he claims that because of the primacy of such a relation, all other relationships between an individual and others around him/her must be sacrificed. buber rightly criticises such a notion, and instead places all meaning and truth upon both our relations to the divine and those around us. that we access the divine through others, through daily life and interaction and dialog and encounter. what a beautiful and unique philosophy, compared to the multitude of others who speak of man as if we are single entities existing without relation (though i imagine many philosophers did live such a life).
in any case, buber receives my 7th tribute, for contributing so much to my notions of religious practice and relations between individuals. if you ever want something stunning and beautiful to read, pick up his books. i and thou and between man and man are his most significant, and each absolutely stellar. here is a quote from between man and man, though i could quote nearly the entire book if i could:
all actual life is encounter.
this is a quote from martin buber, a jewish philosopher who worked in the first half of the 20th century. he is hands down my favourite thinker. what i find so powerful in buber's writing is his belief that true existence, the core of reality and meaning in life is found in the relationships between man and man, and between man and God. the latter relationship is discussed by other philosophers, and is of course in no way unique to buber. kierkegaard's ideology rests on the relationship between the "single one" and God, but he claims that because of the primacy of such a relation, all other relationships between an individual and others around him/her must be sacrificed. buber rightly criticises such a notion, and instead places all meaning and truth upon both our relations to the divine and those around us. that we access the divine through others, through daily life and interaction and dialog and encounter. what a beautiful and unique philosophy, compared to the multitude of others who speak of man as if we are single entities existing without relation (though i imagine many philosophers did live such a life).
in any case, buber receives my 7th tribute, for contributing so much to my notions of religious practice and relations between individuals. if you ever want something stunning and beautiful to read, pick up his books. i and thou and between man and man are his most significant, and each absolutely stellar. here is a quote from between man and man, though i could quote nearly the entire book if i could:
i have given up the ‘religious’ which is nothing but the exception, extraction, exaltation, ecstasy; or it has given me up. i possess nothing but the everyday out of which i am never taken. the mystery is no longer disclosed, it has escaped or it has made its dwelling here where everything happens as it happens. i know no fullness but each mortal hour’s fullness of claim and responsibility. though far from being equal to it, yet i know that in the claim i am claimed and may respond in responsibility, and know who speaks and demands a response. i do not know much more. if that is religion then it is just everything, simply all that is lived in its possibility of dialogue.
now, as i say - i have no original thought, and cannot claim my interest in buber to be a self-discovery. i came upon him after attending a small lecture by brilliant poet li-young lee at byu when i was 18, who receives my 8th tribute. lee mentioned reading buber under a tree when he was young (ok, how much more poetic can you get than that?), and how so much of i and thou informed his own poetry. li-young lee is a brilliant poet who writes beautiful words describing life as he lives it... he adopts much of what buber expresses in the quote above - that religion, meaning, and truth should not be ecstatic escapes from mortal life, but are instead the very stuff and reality of mortal life, that we must embrace the world and the most banal of experiences (lee writes poems about doing laundry, or making a bed with his wife) to see beauty and truth. is there anything more important than this? and more wonderful? i love the idea of embracing daily life in search of beauty rather than escaping to a platonic nether-world. lee is so devoted to the relationships he has with his family, wife, and children, and it is in those which he finds spirituality and beauty. it is wonderful to read. so if you have further time, do read lee's poetry, i have all of his books and couldn't begin to claim my favorite, so look them all up - including his most recent, behind my eyes, ah! beautiful!
and finally, tribute 9 - the reason i went to that li-young lee lecture in the first place is owing entirely to my dear friend julie. li-young lee was speaking the next day in the large university-wide byu forum, which i would have naturally attended. the forum was breathtaking, but it was at that small little-known lecture the night before that lee really interacted with the audience, let his guard down entirely, and just absorbed us all in his wonderful poetry. and if julie had not told me of it, how would i have come to all the wonderful moments in reading lee and buber ever since? i owe julie a great deal in fact, since she was my go-to girl for fabulous conversations on art and philosophy freshman year. i love her dearly for that, and am so happy i was able to see her recently in madrid. :)
so thank you,
julie
li-young lee
and buber.
you have all altered so much of my thinking, in the best sense possible. i can think of few authors who i love more dearly, and whose thoughts have been more influential on my life over the last 5 years than lee and buber.
now, as i say - i have no original thought, and cannot claim my interest in buber to be a self-discovery. i came upon him after attending a small lecture by brilliant poet li-young lee at byu when i was 18, who receives my 8th tribute. lee mentioned reading buber under a tree when he was young (ok, how much more poetic can you get than that?), and how so much of i and thou informed his own poetry. li-young lee is a brilliant poet who writes beautiful words describing life as he lives it... he adopts much of what buber expresses in the quote above - that religion, meaning, and truth should not be ecstatic escapes from mortal life, but are instead the very stuff and reality of mortal life, that we must embrace the world and the most banal of experiences (lee writes poems about doing laundry, or making a bed with his wife) to see beauty and truth. is there anything more important than this? and more wonderful? i love the idea of embracing daily life in search of beauty rather than escaping to a platonic nether-world. lee is so devoted to the relationships he has with his family, wife, and children, and it is in those which he finds spirituality and beauty. it is wonderful to read. so if you have further time, do read lee's poetry, i have all of his books and couldn't begin to claim my favorite, so look them all up - including his most recent, behind my eyes, ah! beautiful!
and finally, tribute 9 - the reason i went to that li-young lee lecture in the first place is owing entirely to my dear friend julie. li-young lee was speaking the next day in the large university-wide byu forum, which i would have naturally attended. the forum was breathtaking, but it was at that small little-known lecture the night before that lee really interacted with the audience, let his guard down entirely, and just absorbed us all in his wonderful poetry. and if julie had not told me of it, how would i have come to all the wonderful moments in reading lee and buber ever since? i owe julie a great deal in fact, since she was my go-to girl for fabulous conversations on art and philosophy freshman year. i love her dearly for that, and am so happy i was able to see her recently in madrid. :)
so thank you,
julie
li-young lee
and buber.
you have all altered so much of my thinking, in the best sense possible. i can think of few authors who i love more dearly, and whose thoughts have been more influential on my life over the last 5 years than lee and buber.
02 August 2008
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