May 17, 2007 Lightness or weight
In an earlier posting (here) I struggled with the problematic good-evil and positive-negative dichotomy. Kundera opened another perspective to this and presents us with another problem ; )
“The heaviest of burdens crushes us, we sink beneath it, it pins us to the ground. But in love poetry of every age, the woman longs to be weighed down by the man’s body. The heaviest of burdens is therefore simultaneously an image of life’s most intense fulfillment. The heavier the burden, the closer our lives come to the earth, the more real and truthful they become.
Conversely, the absolute absence of burden causes man to be lighter than air, to soar into heights, take leave of the earth and his earthly being, and become only half real, his movements as free as they are insignificant.
What then shall we choose? Weight or lightness?”
Lightness and weight. Which is good and which is bad?
- 2 comments
- Posted under dualism, readings, thoughts
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whoami
said
While in this “weight” and yet being able to see n understand the deceptions of “lightness” is good. Perhaps “weight” helps us stay on ground (kingdom?), humble enough to seek the Giver for the love that keeps us from being buried under the weight, unloading it by loving people (for people justifies the existence of a kingdom); then we get burdened again by what we further see and experience, but our communion with our Giver encourages us on to love over and over again… a continuous love story with God and people… weight that builds love, lightness when u see love lifting people out of heaviness…can this be good??
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lianghin
said
whoami (hu-ah-mee),
I like your embracing approach to holding the tension between the two, though I am keen to examine the lightness of loving people. I sense the turning away from the personal heaviness to ‘unloading it by loving people’ exposes an insufficient willingness on our part to pick up the broken pieces of our own life. I find here a disconnection, a vacuum – abandoned. We are then disconnected from our personal responsibility for our own life, choices,dilemmas and our own weights.