My favorite professor, Namsoon Kang, posted this on her facebook status this morning and it has been sitting with me all day:

"Beethoven's remarks on his deathbed remind me of the love for the life of "regardless": "I learned to look at the world in all of its darkness and evil and still love it."

This is not a romanticization of life but a fierce love for life that rides on dissonance, catastrophe, darkness, disparity--a kind of life in jazz, blues, and his later music. This Beethoven-ness comes to me as a passionate reminder of the significance of the point of departure of meaning-giving/finding in one's life."

-Namsoon Kang

I think this could be understood as: a love for life 'regardless' is a love that reaches deeper than surface satisfaction and meaning, but embraces all that is life- including the dark and painful pieces....

This resonates with a few different phrases which I hold:

'Accept contradiction'...

Be 'here now' or 'no where'...

At the same time- I am the type of person that can tend to be 'restless'. It seems I am always aiming for more, searching for more. Honestly, I struggle with balancing contentment with my perfectionistic tendencies. This isn't something I'm proud of... I'm always trying to improve myself- improve the world around me- my garden- my kids- my dog. I struggle to embrace life regardless. I will work on that :)

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I wonder...

How can we love life 'regardless', while also striving for something more?

How does this sit with those who are in places of darkness due to situations of oppression and violence?

How do we balance a desire to 'find meaning' with an acceptance for all that is- including that which is difficult, painful, and catastrophic?

How can we hope for a future that brings a greater sense of wholeness and life, while also being content exactly where we are?

Are these concepts in binary opposition to one another, or is this a 'both, and' situation where we can both love life 'regardless' and hope for more?

What do you think?