Soren Kierkegaard

total of my writings.” This was affectionately thought and expressed, but
reality would certainly turn out quite differently.
The same sort of concern can be seen in the four letters to Jette, all
undated and all signed “Your S .Kierkegaard .” From the first letter, written
sometime in 1844, it is clear that the two did not really know each other
and that they had not seen each other very often during the period when
Jette and Peter Christian had lived in Copenhagen .The second letter, writ-
ten in 1847, accompanied a copy ofWorks of Lovethat the author was giving
his sister-in-law, adding the comment that he hoped that the book would
not “conflict with my brother’s notion of what constitutes beneficial or
harmful reading matter.” Søren Aabye had originally intended to keep this
particular copy of the book for himself, which explained why the volume
not only was “beautifully produced” but also had already been read, so Jette
did not actually have to trouble herself with the book and could be content
with treating it as she would “any other art object.” The third letter arrived
shortly thereafter and may date from September of that year .We learn that
Søren Aabye had “spoken a number of times” with Peter Christian when
the latter had been in Copenhagen, where he explained that Jette “contin-
ues to be confined to bed” and presumably implied that his wife’s illness
was more psychic than somatic .In any event, the younger brother’s letter
discusses the lack of patience so often displayed by those involved, including
the physician, when an illness is not of the simple and straightforward vari-
ety: “It isn’t fever, nor is it a broken arm, nor an injury from a fall—what
is it, then?” Thus to be ill, mentally ill, actually requires that one have the
“patience to bear the impatience of sympathy.” It is an upside-down world,
but the consolation offered is not of this world either: When a person really
suffers, he or she receives a “real opportunity to realize the truth that the
God of patience is truly the One who can absolutely and unconditionally
persist in caring for a person with eternal and unchanging sympathy.”
The fourth and final letter, written in December 1847, plays a variation
on this theme of consolation .The illness is still spoken ofas ifit were so-
matic, but it is clear that the author of the letter has understood its psychic
character: “Now you are once again confined to bed... .There is some-
thing intimately connected with physical illness—a quiet, profoundly pain-
ful, and slowly consuming worry, which, in its suffering, turns first over
onto this side in the thought of having been forgotten by others (‘who
probably never give one a thought’), then over onto the other side, fearing
that whatever one has to say or write will not be good enough .Oh, let that
care begone.” Kierkegaard recommended that Jette seek diversion to the
extent it was possible, but he knew very well that this was easier said than
done .Itcanbe done, however, if only one really wants to do so: “People