One of my favourite Kierkegaard quotes relates to levelling and the power of abstraction:
… leveling is an abstract power and is abstraction’s victory over individuals.
Two Ages: The Age of Revolution and the Present Age A Literary Review, 84
The parish is in a period of transition – moving to welcoming a new vicar. I struggle with change so it is a time of anxiety. And my brain likes to play the “what if” game.
In that context, I was thinking about how I would explain my life. I tried, with little success, to write a rule in the form of a letter like the anchorite guidance literature. Also, I tried to collect Scripture verses to illustrate various precedents. One issue surrounding the solitary life is its very nature: an individual living an individual life. Yes, there is a historical precedent. But, like Lessing, there is an “ugly ditch” between the precedent and the lived experience.
So the first lesson is that maybe I simply need to live. My greatest battle is to surrender the desire (the motivation for my actions) to be accepted and loved. If I live for Jesus alone, I should seek all good things from Him alone! And then, restored and refreshed, I can love my neighbour without seeking something in return. (I am some distance away.)
Is any attempt to define, to abstract this life, really a desire to be admired as a spiritual hero?
Second lesson: my lived experience is beyond abstraction. Perhaps the whole point of the solitary life is a life dedicated to Jesus without further abstraction? Maybe real life is lived in the space beyond definition? A personal relationship is as individual as the persons involved. While there may be common elements, these do not define the relationship.
Just some random thoughts! Anyway …
this solitary life 