Monday, May 4, 2009

The expanse between us

My blogmate at PostBourgie, universeexpanding, unearthed this gorgeous nugget from poet Rainer Maria Rilke about marriage. Maybe you all have heard or read this before but I thought it was worth sharing:
“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.”

2 comments:

maria said...

in real life this means you should each have your own bedroom, but still have sex regularly.

blackink said...

Aw, Maria. I pretty much have dominion over the library (second bedroom) since the First Lady and I work different schedules.

We have enough time apart, as it is.