Walking Together in the Dark

Got into a random argument with AR today over IM. Among other things, it was about what an "ideal love" is. AR's ideal is to be completely understood, to completely understand his lover; to share everything and to become one with her.

I thought differently. A while ago I read a quote that I really liked. It was in Chinese, but it was apparently a translation from German. Unfortunately I could remember neither the name of the author or the book itself.

I began googling it nonetheles. Fourty minutes later, with a bit of luck and a bit of ingenuity, I have found the quotation in Chinese. Sadly, I could not find the original text.

The author of the quote is Albert Schweitzer, the humanitarian doctor who on the Nobel Peace Prize in the 1950s. He was a missionary and a philosopher as well, and wrote prolifically.

It was from this unlikely source that I found my very favorite quote of my philosophy on love. It purportedly is from Schweitzer's "Memoirs from My Childhood and Youth." I am doing a rough translation below, and perhaps will take out his book from the library when I have time to read random books.

"It is impossible to completely know and understand someone else. Even if were possible, no one has the right to demand this of others.

"There is not only a shame in the nakedness of the body, but also a shame in the nakedness of the soul. We should respect it. A soul has clothes as well. We should not undress it.

"As with the mystery of God, we cannot read and know the mystery of another soul as a book that belongs to us, but can only love and trust it.

"Everyone is a secret to others. Even lovers are only pilgrims walking side by side in the dark, not knowing whether they are walking towards the same city. What we can do is to seek the light within ourselves, and feel the companionship and comfort of those walking besides us. We do not need to gaze into the eyes and search into the soul of others."