The Importance of Continuing to Learn

From the very first characterization of Rilke as a man and a writer, Mood was talking about how impressively Rilke was dedicated to the task of being a learner, a beginner, never satisfied with a level of growth, but humbly aware that there is always more growth to be accomplished. Rilke himself talks about that theme in his Letters on Love, in several aspects of male and female relationships. Regarding the condition of the individuals coming into the relationship, he proposes that each must be committed to retaining their own identities and autonomies, in order that they each always have something of their own to bring to the relationship. By contrast, when couples throw everything they have been at the other, keeping nothing to cultivate on their own, their coming together is dependent completely on the vision of something that must now be...