November is a month of inwardness.
Outside, it’s cold, windy and rainy. We are drawn inside, into our flat, which is hopefully a real home where we feel safe.
A home is more than a flat. It holds all the important things that reflect our personality and enrich us. A home expresses our inner being. It’s comfortable and cosy because it was created by our soul (here I refer to the German term Gemüt).
November
Hand-signed art print with small original drawing
Unique piece, 42 x 59,4 cm
According to the dictionary, the soul (here Gemüt ) refers to the totality of the mental and spiritual powers of a person, his or her spiritual-emotional condition.
Strange that pedagogy rarely speaks of the education of the soul. Many aren’t even aware of the idea.
Yet it’s the soul, together with its counterpart, the intellect, that makes a person whole.
Yes, there are treasures to discover within our inner being, treasures that we must unearth before they’re forever lost.
Last year, I attended an event at the Schiller Theatre in Berlin: “Vom Zauber einer verwehenden Sprache”* (On the Magic of a Fading Language).
German poems and ballads from Goethe and Schiller to Fontane and Brecht were performed by the actors Ulrich Tukur and Christian Redl. The beauty of the language – also through the art of these two magicians of speech – revealed itself and cast its spell over all.
Deeply felt emotions are not yet out of style! They’re merely concealed by the flood of images and the contraction of the language.
And that for which we no longer have a term at some point disappears from our thinking – and our feeling.
It’s vital that we overcome the flatness of the language and, with that, the flatness of our feelings.
The luminous depths of our inner self can be discovered anew!
* also available as an audio CD
More posts from the series ‘Contemplations’:
