Uniqueness

Love is never directed to this or that property of the loved one, but neither does it neglect the properties in favour of a generality: universal love; the lover wants the Loved One with all of its predicates, its being such as it is.

--Sebastian Smee

I am all at once what Christ is, ' since he was

what I am, and

This Jack, joke, poor potsherd, ' patch,

matchwood, immortal

diamond,

Is immortal diamond.

---Gerald Manley Hopkins

~~~

Okay, you know I don't give advice on this blog, especially since my own life is messed up and because I detest missionaries, "experts" and busy-bodies who feel they just have to tell you how to live your life, but I did want to say this, and it's contained in the words of this song.

Against the false universalism of the market and the boxing-in of our identities by 'the religious' today we have to-more than ever- once again learn how to speak of the 'I' in all its specificity and dazzling uniqueness. And that means we cannot stay silent, we have to speak about You. The world's shortest poem-and probably one of its best-is: Me. You.

May God preserve us from the 'intelligence' of the academics and the narrowing down of our horizons by a false, abstract notion of the individual. We can see other people clearly only to the extent that we see ourselves clearly. 'To see' is not so much an intellectual act as a moral act. To see, with awe and wonder, the awe and wonder of others, is to be at the right distance from them and ourselves; it is a matter of being attentive to what differentiates us and what unites us.