Saturday, August 14, 2010

After some rough words exchanged on a conservative blog,


All emotions are pure which gather you and lift you up; that emotion is impure which seizes only one side of your being and so distorts you.

--Rainer Maria Rilke

10 comments:

  1. I am printing that out and hanging it up. So very true.

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  2. I struggle with this one, Elizabeth. I get so filled with self-righteous indignation and sometimes I even feel myself getting off on it. Not in a sexual way, of course, but on some primal, weird power-trip way and that scares me at the same time it thrills me. And as I get older, I am less apt to hold my tongue and yet, at the same time, more inclined to try and understand where the other person is coming from.
    Well. Complex issue and I will remember those words when I feel those emotions rising.

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  3. Rilke seems to speak to every situation.

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  4. And the rough words on the conservative blog? Can we know them?

    You may not want to share or re-live them, but I find your feisty words inspiring, especially in face of conservative views that seek to stifle.

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  5. Ms. Moon -- Your words are, as usual, so wise.

    Elisabeth: You can the comments here: https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=2873885442870520119&postID=5949277337063395046. One of several exchanges between the two of us. Another big one (that warranted it's own email from the blogger to me is here: http://lawyermommusings.blogspot.com/2010/08/for-whom-bells-toil.html

    And I'd love to know what you think!

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  6. I hear ya. The quote is so appropriate. I had to learn to stay away from certain. If I read something and get into a discussion like that, it will still have hold of me, in an obsessive way hours later. No. Not for me. Not anymore. Kuddos to you though if you can engage in such conversations. Ultimately dialogue is good.

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  7. If I read blogs like that regularly I would probably explode. You give good comment, Elizabeth.

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  8. ack....got all side tracked in crazy.
    I'm so not a confronting type. And sometimes I think I have opinions and am just smug about them.
    My time is precious and all that. Why argue.

    and I got totally blown away by the video of Jackie E. the little girl singing .

    that was something I take away as time well spent.

    having said that , I am not an American, don't have constant battles with Health Care, and have not put myself into any situation where I have to actually , you know. like take a stand publicly. It is a trait for which my husband covers for both of us. I admire him greatly. But he does refuse to engage or defend most of the time. I used to think it was because he had too large of an ego. But I think some people love debating . He does not. It doesn't mean he won't see the light or change his mind, but the process is different.

    sorry for the ramble.

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