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| Red nose/Red Rose |
As with many posts, this one is inspired by a piece of music from a band called the Anda Union. The track is called 'Give You a Rose' and so it is about gift giving and love and peace and joy at this time of year. Well that's how I interpret it anyway. And its nice and lively for this dancing time of year. But I was thinking about our old friend Rilke again and his lines:
He who pours himself out like a stream is acknowledged at
last by Knowledge;
and she leads him enchented through the harmonious
country
that finishes often with starting, and with ending begins.
There is something about the contemplative at this time of year which makes me pull back from the seasonal excess to register the state of being. That is to say, what Rilke seems to imply here is that in seeking the true self it is at once made into a metaphor and truth and meaning is deferred and always inaccessible, and all endings are just new beginnings, so Christmas is just the end of year signal for the new year to get ready - here it comes, resplendent in a flat cap, pink cheeks and ruddy breeks, offering a rose. Grasp it, thorns and all, for all being is a metaphor, 'that finishes often with starting, and with ending begins...'
