Not I, but Christ in me

Johanna  Muecke:

One conversation from the early years still stands vividly in my mind, which I overheard on a school excursion (because Herr Doctor [Rudolf Steiner] also took part in it). Several young people walked alongside him and talked about their lives. One of them exclaimed animatedly: "Why is there so little happiness in life when everyone wants to be happy?" Herr Doctor replied: "Yes, but perhaps life is not there in order to make us happy!" "Yes, but why else?" said the young man, quite shocked. "Well, suppose life were there in order for us to accomplish a task."

These words were spoken very kindly but with such deep emphasis that we all went on in silence for a while, and they remained firmly in my memory, although I hardly understood them at the time.

GA 51, Introduction