Agape

Hin-gabe

devotion

dedication

more passive than passive - Levinas

to abandon oneself

to become a gift





It's quite interesting that we can only actually see ourselves as a reflection in the mirror or in the other, that is before the advent of photography culminating in the selfie.

Father Damien or Damiaan 

Hold On II

Trust and Faith

Hold On I

Inevitably There - Necessarily Valued

...

You neighbor of the Danube!

You working-man of the Rhine, the Elbe, or the
Weser! you working-woman too!

You Sardinian! you Bavarian! you Swabian! Saxon!
Wallachian! Bulgarian!

You citizen of Prague! you Roman! Neapolitan!
Greek!

You lithe matador in the arena at Seville!

...

Each of us inevitable,

Each of us limitless—each of us with his or her
right upon the earth,

Each of us allowed the eternal purport of the earth,

Each of us here as divinely as any is here...

 

Salut au Monde! - Walt Whitman

 

There's a Limit

As Rembrandt has to learn in a heart-rending way in Nightwatching. All his art cannot resurrect Saskia.

Was soll man sich ins Grab mitnehmen?

What should one take into the grave?

"Du schweigst, sagte er (Václav Talich) zu Křížek. Du weißt doch am besten, daß der Mensch sich nur das ins Grab mitnimmt, was er im Leben verschenkt hat./ You are silent, he (Václav Talich) said to Křížek. You know best that the only things a human being can take into his grave are those things he has given away." - Jaroslav Seifert