but out of love

Once upon a time there lived a father and a son. Both were very gifted, both witty, particularly the father...
On one rare occasion, when the father looking upon his son saw that he was deeply troubled, he stood before him and said: poor child, you go about in silent despair. (But he never questioned more closely, alas he could not, for he himself was in silent despair.) Otherwise, they never exchanged a word on the subject. Both father and son were, perhaps two of the most melancholy men in the history of man.

And the father believed that he was the cause of the son's melancholy, and the son believed that he was the cause of the father's melancholy, and so they never discussed it... And what is the meaning of this? The point precisely is that he made me unhappy - but out of love. His error did not consist in lack of love but in mistaking a child for an old man.

Kierkegaard
The Journals of Soren Kierkegaard


Painting by: dark hylian@Flickr