Ursula K. Le Guin — A Left-Handed Commencement Address
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Ursula K. Le Guin — A Left-Handed Commencement Address
Go to the Limits of Your Longing
Written by Rainer Maria Rilke
Translated and read by Joanna Macy
Listen
God speaks to each of us as he makes us,
then walks with us silently out of the night.
These are the words we dimly hear:
You, sent out beyond your recall,
go to the limits of your longing.
Embody me.
Flare up like a flame
and make big shadows I can move i
A horrible thought: could this be the pattern of my life ahead? Every ambition thwarted, every dream stillborn? But a second’s reflection tells me that what I’m currently experiencing is shared by all sentient, suffering human beings, except for the very, very few: the genuinely talented – the odd, rare genius – and, of course, the exceptionally lu
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