"... I have frequently had the occasion to stress the metaphysical significance of the encounter, never having seen eye to eye with the rationalist who prefers to construe it as a simple, accidental meeting; but I had not noticed ... that encounters can also occur on the level of thought. To encounter someone is not merely to cross his path but to be, for the moment at least, near to or with him. To use a term I have often used before, it means being a co-presence. We have a number of thoughts with which we get by without really encountering them; they are not revealed or present to us, and it might be added, we do not expose ourselves to them. A real encounter with one of these thoughts, if we consider the matter carefully, is something which does not happen accidentally, and one can ready oneself for it - as for a visible encounter - but it still involves one of those shocks which punctuates the career of the soul."
- Gabriel Marcel, Creative Fidelity
It's been awhile since I've last read Marcel. Thanks for posting this. I did a little web searching for further quotes, wanting to bounce off them, and found this, which I think is rather interesting:
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