Between doubt and hope, your life is oriented toward landscapes... ...

...that coincide with something that is within you. This entire world, which you have not chosen but which has been given for you to humanize, is the landscape that most grows as life grows.


Therefore may your heart never say, “Neither the autumn, nor the sea, nor the ice-covered crag have anything to do with me.” Instead may it affirm, “I love the reality that I build!”

I will tell you the meaning of your life here... ...

...It is to humanize the earth. And what does it mean to humanize the earth? It is to surpass pain and suffering; it is to learn without limits; it is to love the reality you build.





I cannot ask you to go further, but neither should it offend if I declare, “Love the reality you build, and not even death will halt your flight!”

Before the same sea one person becomes anguished... ...

...while another, inspired, feels exhilarated. And a thousand more are overawed in contemplation of those frozen crags, while still others gaze in admiration at those crystals carved on such gigantic scale. Some are depressed, others uplifted before the same landscape.


A single landscape, then, may be very different for two people, but wherein does the difference lie?

Here is my question: As life goes by, is it happiness or suffering that grows within you?

Do not ask that I define these words; answer instead according to what you feel…


Though you may be wise and powerful, if happiness and liberty do not grow in you and in those around you, I will reject your example.

Not even the worst of what is criminal is foreign to me... ...

...and if I recognize it in the landscape, I recognize it also in myself.


So it is that I want to surpass what in me as in everyone fights to suppress life: I want to surpass the abyss!