Speak to us of Reason and Passion

Title is from Kahlil Gibran's The Prophet.

Big V's literary tastes lean towards what I like to call higher/deeper learning. His reading material tends to be sources of enlightenment and knowledge...so poetry, biographies...Kahlil Gibran, the Dalai Lama etc. In the past he has attempted to get me to read parts of these books that in his opinion will be beneficial to me, help me to find that zen like place within that would aid with my health and general well-being. Suffice to say it hasn't worked, probably because he makes his attempts at the most inopportune moments...when I'm slap bang in the midst of a crisis is mos def not the best time to talk meditation and higher planes and rising above the pain, if the words tramadol or oxycodone aren't coming out of your mouth, keep schtum!!!

But I have read some of these books and whilst they may not have aided in helping deal with the physical side of my being, I must confess that in healthier times I have enjoyed and learnt a thing or two from them...at the very least they make me think and contemplate and reflect.

And right now, at this moment, I've got the passage on Reason and Passion from The Prophet on my mind. 

Kahlil Gibran wrote that - 

Your soul is oftentimes a battlefield, upon which your reason and your judgement wage war against your passion and your appetite....Your reason and your passion are the rudder and the sails of your seafaring soul. If either your sails or your rudder be broken, you can but toss and drift, or else be held at a standstill in mid-seas. For reason, ruling alone, is a force confining; and passion, unattended, is a flame that burns to it's own destruction.

So the idea is we must find some balance between in essence our mind and our desires...I initially typed heart but for me (though most may disagree) I don't believe heart is simply ruled by passion - by love, by compassion, yes - but passion to me denotes the throwing of caution to the wind and I don't necessarily think going purely by heart means throwing all caution away.

Anyway the reason this passage is on my mind is because I am trying to find some of this balance in my life. I am naturally wired to be ruled by my mind, by reason...this doesn't mean that the war with passion is not going on in my soul...

There's this quote from a book that's more my style than Big V's...first of all its fiction and it's romance (Judith McNaught's Double Standards)...Big V I suspect would rather gouge his eyes out...but anyway I think it sums me up...

What I am is the confused product of a semi-puritanical upbringing and a liberal education. Which means I think it's wrong for me to do anything, but I think it's perfectly all right for other people to do whatever they want.

As soon as passion rears it's head in my life and attempts to rule my actions, 8 times out of 10 reason takes over. I would love passion to win more because reason is a confining controlling source. Even better I would like to find the balance Kahlil G speaks of, he says to consider them like 2 house guests, writing - Surely you would not honour one guest above the other.

Here's hoping I find a way :-)