Loving is the only life. Living must give us time for life. It is not
enough to fill your lungs with air. You must fill your lungs with life.
The heart must not only beat. It must beat the dance of life. It is not
important to live so many years. It is important to live so much life.
You have dollars. But have you life? You write something. People admire
you. You are famous for some reason or other. That is all very great.
But there is something beyond. Life is beyond. Eating and sleeping is
not life. Love alone is life. You are brilliant. You perform in the
center of the stage. But that is not life. Lending money at percents.
Making profits. Getting a house full of decorations. That is not life. A
man may have all that and more and be stone dead. I pass you on the
street. You look empty. You are hungry. You ache and strain for
something. What is it you yet need? You who have so much. You who seem
to have all the world. You to whose door all ships seem to sail and into
whose treasury all cargoes seem to be unloaded. You cast upon me such a
vacant look. You have not found out that your wealth is not life. You
have not consciously said that to yourself. But your body has found it
out. Your soul has found it out. You have power. You can draw a big
check. You are admitted anywhere. You are welcome to interrupt the world
at its devotions. Nobody would think of closing you out. The state, the
church, open when you appear, before you say a word. Yet you cast that
empty look upon me when we pass. That telltale look. That look that
means more than your riches. That look of infinite self pity. You have
the key to all locks. But you are helpless before that which having no
lock needs no key. You are alive. But you do not possess life. You are
your own master. But that is not enough. There is something beyond.
After being your own master you must know how to become your own slave.
You can live in the senses. In the gratification of the passions. In the
accumulation of temporal properties. But living is not life. So many in
so many generations have been fooled. They have got what they reached
for. But they have found that what they reached for was not what they
desired. When a man is greedy. When he seems willing to do anything to
get goods. Then life seems to say to him: Here's what you want: now what
are you going to do with it? You are filled to the brim. What are you
going to do with it? You run over with success. What are you going to do
with it? You are known everywhere you go. The instant your name is
mentioned everybody knows who you are. What are you going to do with it?
This is living. But this is not life. You are a conqueror. You are a
maker of laws. You rule people. What you say goes. Those who hate fear
you. Those who love despise you. You are an arrogant force upon whose
will for fair or foul the formal living of the world depends. You have
reached deepest into the dirt. You have reached highest into the blue
ether. Yet you look at me as if you who seem to have all after all have
nothing. You have not discovered that living is not life. You have not
seen that far. But you have discovered that something is the matter with
you. That something is the matter with the crown you wear. That a diadem
does not make a king. That living does not make life. That sometimes the
more a man contains the less he contains. That somehow one dream is
worth a thousand facts. That one cipher is worth more than a thousand
figures one. A man may find that out too late. He often leaves it to his
children to find it out for him. And a race often finds it out too late.
A dazzling generation of strutters and pirates finds it out too late. It
often leaves it to posterity to find it out. That's where you are and I
am to-day. We have done wonders. But we have not done enough. We have
still to find ourselves out. We have done wonders. You and I. Our
countries. Your country. Germany, England, Canada, America. Our
countries. Any countries. They have still to find themselves out. To
find out that living is not life. To find out that the church and the
state are not life. That priesthoods and plutocracies are not life. That
love alone is life. That love which means brotherhood all around and
justice going with it all around. That that love alone is life. That is
why our civilization bulging at the belt is still so empty. That is why
our governments bragging so vastly about their omnipotence are still so
helpless that they can only maintain themselves with armies and navies.
Like our systems. Which can only maintain themselves by robbery. They
have found much. But they have not found out themselves. They know how
to live. But they have not found life. For life is only found with love.
The way of life is the way of love. Not the way of living but the way of
life. Not the way of living, which is bound to come to an end, but the
way of life, which is necessarily interminable. That way of life which
is the way of love.
Loving is the only life. But we are warned. Too much love may mean too
little life. Putting love in place of power may be like putting disease
in place of health. Love. But dont love too much. Put a little love into
trade. But keep lots of cruelty there to balance it. Be decent. But dont
be too decent. Always keep some villainy in reserve. Dont rob too much.
But still rob enough to keep the world indignant. If we had no victims
we would have nobody to get mad at the victors. If we had no bad the
good would be too easy. If a man was not obliged to fight for his life
his death would be painless. There must be some poison in every dish.
There must be some alloy in every deed. If we all loved hate would
possess us. We need hate to keep love straight. We need treason to
balance loyalty. You must be very careful so as not to be too
considerate. You must spice your generosity. Put some greed into it.
Make the smooth rough. Add some bitter to the sweet. A world of love
would lack contrast. Would be without color. We need the persecutor. Men
would go soft without the tyrant. The bully will qualify the man. So you
need not be so conscience stricken when you have done some mean thing.
But for that mean thing the stars might fall out of their places. Think
of it. Your arm is omnipotence. Your crime is salvation. You starve the
widow and the orphan. Too much love would make love itself monotonous.
Therefore, corner wheat. Therefore, collect your rents. Therefore, live
on money someone else has to work for. Therefore, rejoice in the
purchased judgments of courts. Therefore, shine. No matter whom you
obscure, shine. Get what you can in any way you can get it. We could not
live in a heaven. Mix some hell with every heaven. Heaven is saved by
the hell in it. Does the idea of love make you shudder? I am accused of
an iniquity. My love notion is a fallacy. It will take all the flush out
of the cheeks of the world. It will leave us without a cause. When a man
achieves love that is the end of him. There is no beyond. So with the
social body. When it has achieved love it is dead. There is nothing to
continue with. Motive is killed. Impetus is gone. After we have
accomplished love we have no reason for being. All having been done
there is nothing to do. The perfect state will have to react towards
imperfection. Love must pray to be saved from love. They say to me: You
are dragging your earth the way of death. I am charged with preaching
love at the expense of life. Life could not stand love. It would break
down under the strain. It would cease, vanish, lapse away. Love requires
its foil. My world, my love's paradise, my fool eden, without its adams
and eves and apples and temptations, would blast all harvests and reduce
the fertilities of contrast to desert sand. They say to me: Keep your
hands off. Let the wrongs alone. Let the people suffer. Let the shadows
thicken. I say: Loving is the only life. But you object. Institutions
object. The church objects. The state. The piracies. They all object.
They say: Loving is the only death. Love and you will live. That is what
I have said. Love and you will die. That is what you have said. What you
say. Love will produce a race of weaklings. Lovers cant fight. Lovers
cant resist. Lovers cant say no. Lovers can only surrender. Therefore,
your percents are the guarantee of life. Therefore, your injustices are
what save society from disintegration. Hating is the spice of life. I
have said: Rather go without life than go without love. You say: Love is
only the fringe of the garment: we must have life. That is, we must have
life no matter what becomes of love. I say: We must have love whatever
becomes of life. You dissent. Love only leads life into a pit. Love will
not do for every day. It must have its seasons. It must be reserved for
special occasions. A little love will keep. Much love will destroy. That
is why our systems are built on cruelties. Their barbarisms are
preservative. Rein your love in. Love will take all the virility out of
the social order. If you are a lover, go slow. If you wish the race
well, take a second guess. It may be wiser to wish it ill. You say:
Every thing must be done to preserve the race. I say: Only one kind of a
race is worth preserving. I hear it said that a race of lovers is as
dangerous as a race of haters. I say: There is a love beyond both love
and hate.
Loving is the only life. Love closes no doors. It throws everything wide
open. Houses and hearts. We go from love to more love. To say love is to
say no more than that things get along together. To look at the stars
and say love is only to say that the stars obey the law of life. To look
at the body of a woman as a man and say love is only to say that the
flesh obeys the law of life. To look at a dream. To write a poem. To
make a shoe. To build a bridge. To walk out in the fresh air. To defy
tyrants. To do such things and to say love is only to say that whatever
we do we obey the law of life. This does not mean always giving up. It
means never giving up. It does not mean making concessions. It means
demanding concessions. Love is not less rigorous. Love is more rigorous.
Love does not stop half way up. It goes to the top. And it finds that
every top has another top. And so love never is satisfied with what it
has done. It always finds something else to do. To look at the bud and
say love is only to prophecy the flower. To look at the wave and say
love is only to call attention to the sea. To laugh in cloudy weather
and say love is only another verification of the sun. To face the people
who think they are your enemies and say love is only to make it plainer
that you can't be stirred from the truth. To look at life and say love
is to establish immortality. To look at what is hidden or doubtful and
say love is only to open the eyes of the blind. To look at profits and
say love is only to lead the way to the commune. How can we escape love?
Love is the only life. To bask in the daylight and say love is only to
lead to the sun. You look at men. You say men are your brothers. Is that
as if we said: Now let us all melt away in each other? To say brother is
only to say law. To say brother is only to say that we have discovered a
consequence as well as a cause. To say that love will leave nothing to
be done is as if one said the loyalty of a planet to its orbit leaves
nothing to be done. Love is not an end. It is only a beginning. We begin
to live when we begin to love. And as long as we continue to love we
will continue to begin. Love is not the violation of law. It is the
observance of law. Life derives its joint and sinew from love. Love is
getting along together. Whether between earths or people, getting along
together. Why should getting along together be worse than getting along
apart? Why should we suspect that worlds that are loyal to their
foundations are less likely to resist the northwind than worlds that are
built upon quicksands? To say no love is to say no life. For being alive
is not life. Simply going about your business, simply making money,
simply eating and drinking, even if you are a whole animal, is not life.
To hold back love supposing it may go too far is like holding back life
supposing there may be too much life. We will achieve all that love may
see. Then love will see more. We will go with love to complete love.
Then we will go farther. Eternally farther. As with life. Living life
into the remotest distances only to recognize unceasing farther
obligations. There will always be more to do than ever has been done.
There will always be more life coming than ever has arrived. There will
always be more love needed than ever can be expressed. To fear that love
may love too much is to fear that life may live too much. Love is the
law of life. To fear love is to fear life. Loving is the only life
because living together is the only life. Because being together is
inevitable. Oceans and hills and people: being together. Rain and the
seed and the soil: being together. Black and white and red: being
together. A man, a woman, child: being together. Love is being together.
The lake, the house on the shore, the hermit: being together. Yesterday,
to-day, to-morrow: being together. Love gets the obstructions out of the
way of life. Gives living time for life. Gets the wars out of the way.
Gets the poverties and the properties out of the way. Gives the harvest
a chance to mature. Makes the ascent possible. Clears the way for the
pauseless procession. For all forever. Loving is the only life.
I am just a feeler sent out ahead maybe to try the earth for new
days:
I am just a leaf of grass sent up early through the soil to see
if the others could live if they followed:
I am just a man who sticks his head out at the front door to see
for the folks how cold the night is: