Letter from Konstanty Michalski written 25.03.N/D

Author Konstanty Michalski

Category incoming correspondence, Polish researchers

Archive Ingarden Family archives

Related places Lviv

Reference code in archive ARI

Resource type letter

Subject matter academic issues, personal issues

Field philosophy, theology

Tags #act of creation, #ancient philosophy, #Blaise Pascal, #closeness of God, #culture, #culture as a process, #culture as a state, #Easter, #Easter wishes, #emotions, #existence, #feelings, #God, #health problems, #hierarchy of values, #isolation, #Konstanty Michalski, #Lviv, #memory, #Mystère de Jèsus, #oxygen, #philosophy of culture, #Plato, #presence of God, #reality, #Roman Ingarden, #Sandomierz Land, #self-confession, #Socrates, #sophists, #St. Roman, #thoughts, #word

3/25/ ?

n Dear Sir,
I shall start with my heartfelt thanks both for your last letter and the postcard. I was very touched by the contents of the letter and the evidence of your lively memory contained in the card. You must forgive me that I was not as attentive when St. Roman’s day came along, but here they do not make announcements of the calendar on the market square, and because of my eye disease I do not use the calendar for myself either.
n I was already struck by some remarks you made in your penultimate letter, even though they just lightly touched on what had happened. Of course, I had guessed what it was about, but I did not want to react to it. In the last letter, however, you said it quite clearly. If you were to take a look at Mystère de Jèsus by Pascal, you would find this strange saying there: you would not seek me, if you had not found me. Humans were breathing the word for so long, and they knew nothing about it yet, or at least nothing directly, nothing clear, nothing definite. Since they wanted oxygen and desired its function, they breathe it just the same as they did in the past, of course, but oxygen has also gotten closer to them in their thoughts and higher in the hierarchy of material values.
n When I was alone, locked up in the tight four walls, when I was alone facing my thoughts and the great creditor, I was penetrated by a voice, deeper than ever before. I was held up by the thought that God is with me, that He is closer to me than I am to myself, that He permeates my whole reality, that his extended act of creation is what causes me to continue existing. It held me up and does so to this moment. Surely, there are other factors, starting with bread and ending with thoughts and feelings, but what has been keeping me going the most is feeling close to God. So much for my self-confession.
n With regards to the topic you raised, for some time now I have been haunted by the question whether culture is a process or a state, or maybe something yet different, wherein a process transforms into a state, and a further process emerges from the state. This is a difficult issue, already tackled by the sophists and Plato, following his master Socrates.
n For now, it is peaceful here, for now I expect that everything remains as it is – in my life.
n Easter is drawing near, so let this letter come to Lviv bearing cordial wishes for you and the Missus from the, now flooded, little rural nook on the land of Sandomierz.

FrKonstMichalski