good point.
we could add genocide, cancer, poverty, hunger, murder, and war to the list as well. a list of all that is terrible in this world and life would be exhaustive. there were certainly terrible things like these in Rilke’s time, he suffered from poor health himself for much of his adult life.
but, for me, this misses the point and dismisses the deeper truth of the transformative power love can have for us when we meet life – no matter how terrible – with love.
this doesn’t mean we don’t work to heal the terrible things in the world with tools we have – medicine, technology, education, but we do so with love so that we don’t add to the suffering.
I hope this helps in clarifying, at least, my perspective on the quote and what it means to me. though I’m concerned that my wordy and lengthy response has already ruined the poetry of it.
wishing you well
~j
The Metta Garden 
I dunno… Ebola is terrible and needs to be eradicated, not loved.
good point.
we could add genocide, cancer, poverty, hunger, murder, and war to the list as well. a list of all that is terrible in this world and life would be exhaustive. there were certainly terrible things like these in Rilke’s time, he suffered from poor health himself for much of his adult life.
but, for me, this misses the point and dismisses the deeper truth of the transformative power love can have for us when we meet life – no matter how terrible – with love.
this doesn’t mean we don’t work to heal the terrible things in the world with tools we have – medicine, technology, education, but we do so with love so that we don’t add to the suffering.
I hope this helps in clarifying, at least, my perspective on the quote and what it means to me. though I’m concerned that my wordy and lengthy response has already ruined the poetry of it.
wishing you well
~j