Losev on marriage

Oct 28, 1914

<...> I can see now that I will never be able to build the bridge between Heaven and Earth with you. To me, that is the highest, most important criterion.

To live as everyone else does. Never to read Fet, Goethe and Schiller together. Never to find inspiration in Wagner and Beethoven together. Never to confess to the same priest. Never to share a love for that Orthodox Russia that can still be found in Chudovo, Uspenskoye and Iverskaya... No, it would be unbearably dull to live with someone like this. It is dull and dreadful to even think about such a 'together'. I would accomplish more alone than 'together'.

<...> No, no, no. Unless the Lord takes away my reason, nothing shall ever compel me to join my life with someone else's without these sweet, holy aspirations in mind and heart.

From The Dialectics of Myth:

Could the profane mundanity of ordinary worldly life ever compare to the unique depth of a monastic's contemplation? Could anyone but a monk understand that true monasticism is marriage and true marriage is monasticism? Could anyone but a monk see history for what it is? The true, actual history of the soul, with all its secret wars and revolutions? Could anyone else see everything that is found in the blissful silence of mind and body; in having your thoughts enlightened and your body feeling weightless as you fast; in the sweetness of abstinence; in the joy of praying with an open heart? All is vain and empty compared to monasticism, and all accomplishments are vain and worldly next to it.

To be continued