You must continue to take yourself seriously, you must remain your own witness, marking well everything that happens in this world, never shutting your eyes to reality You must come to grips with these terrible times, and try to find answers to the many questions they pose. And perhaps the answers will help not only yourself but also others.- Etty Hillesum (Holocaust Witness)
I hear what she is saying. I will probably spend more time with the questions though. In Rainer Maria Rilke's Letters to a Young Poet, Rilke responds to the poets desires to know the answers, "Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer."
My belief is that dabbling in the questions may in time lead to the answers, but either way they are both encouraging us to seek.
I do not suppose to know the answers, or the questions for that matter. I definitely do not claim to have experienced anything so harrowing as the holocaust or have the insight of Rilke.
In fact I struggle against that voice that asks, "Who do you think you are to even write this and share it with the world?"
Who do you think you are to express an opinion, raise a question, share an experience. but I believe it is our silences that kill our spirit. I believe when we are divided and separated to think we must do this all on our own we deny ourselves the opportunity to not feel as if we are the only ones who have experienced these things. And miss the chance to see the possibility to overcome and see the other side.
It may suit us for awhile to cherish our own individual difficulties. To sooth ourselves with the belief that no one understands us. However, when I have sat with other women, it is the recognition of their stories that helped me to raise my head, look in someone's eyes and realize I was not alone.
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