Two Sided Creatures
The human soul sometimes appears to be divided into two
halves which often seem to conflict with one another. One half is the
rational, which we associate with logic, contemplation, inventing, discerning,
planning, predictability, and stability. We love the security that comes from
this.
The other half, the half that I believe we sometimes fear,
is the irrational. The irrational are the things about ourselves that we can’t
often explain such as passions, love, hate, jealousy, and curiosity. Though
understand very little about this second half, we must agree that through the ages
it has often raged as the more powerful of the two. How many irrational
decisions have we seen throughout history? Men influenced by their love for a
woman doing things that logically don’t make sense, others overcome with
emotions of anger that they do something that they later regret, and on a
happier note, people who have sacrificed or done something charitable for
someone else even though there was no personal gain involved. While seem to be
creatures of both passion and logic, passion may be the more dominate of the
two.
The persuading power of passions can be very scary and hard
to understand, especially when you are experiencing them. It can be hard to see the forrest through the trees.The Greeks discovered
that by experiencing the irrational via drama, art, music, or dance, it helped
us to come to grips with this powerful and necessary part of ourselves.
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| Some of my best Friends |
People have always been an important part of my life.
Whenever I struggle to understand myself or feel that I might be behaving irrationally I go to someone I can
trust and explain what I am thinking and feeling. Often in the process of
talking to a loved one my world clears and I can see things the way they really are. Sometimes we just need someone to tell us to "look up just a moment at the sky"
That's true--it was when Agaue spoke to someone older, wiser, and more experienced that she learned the truth of her irrationality. She needed that outside help from someone who wasn't a part of what she had been experiencing. So do we need that help when we're dealing with irrationalities. Loved ones are a great source of wisdom and strength in those times.
ReplyDeleteI agree in many ways to your post. I think it essential to surround ourselves with those we can trust will help us and be with us in those moments that you expressed. Earlier in your post I found it interesting that you had said that, "passion may be the more dominate of the two" referring to the relationship of logic and passion. In some ways I agree but I also think it is worth noting that those irrational or passion filled decisions seem to be more focused upon. The world in which we live likes the spontaneous or unpredictable story as long as it is not related to us so although they may be of similar power, I think we talk about the irrational things more.
ReplyDeleteI didn't even think about how important it was for a father to be able to help his daughter out of her trance. It's interesting how in the moment of the attack her own son could not do the same for her yet after her father was able to quite simply. Do you think that has to do with kairos? The timing just was not right for her son but for her father it was the right moment.
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