Beethoven’s last completed work before his death was the Opus 135 String Quartet whose last movement is entitled: “Der schwer gefasste Entschluss” meaning “The Resolution hard to take” or “The Difficult Decision.” Three ominous notes open the movement and were marked: “Muss es sein?” (“Must it be?”…A very definite fear and anxiety is expressed by this motif which is then replaced by an upbeat reply designated: “Es muss sein! Es muss sein!” (“It must be! It must be!”)… Many believe that what Beethoven was trying to convey was the feeling of being before the Great Eternal, the Awesome specter of God … We are uncertain and cowered by it, but when we see the Truth we embrace and rush towards it…. Personally I think that Everything that occurs out of necessity, everything expected, repeated day in and day out, is mute. Only chance can speak to us…This is an important line. What happens by fate = what happens by necessity = what is repeated = that which belongs to the realm of eternal return. What happens by chance = the fortuitous = what happens only once. And what happens only once, by chance, can have meaning, too…

It’s a complicate lightness/weight dichotomy….because it argues that what happens only once can have meaning…