Reason vs. Passion

Our discussions lately in class of Negative Capability brought to mind a poem that meant a lot to me by Kahlil Gibran. It was after reading this poem some years ago that I first acknowledged the existence of that internal struggle between reason and passion that we experience as humans. Before I think I understood it religiously, as a conflict between God's will and Satan's within us, or simpler put, Good vs. Evil. And this poem really opened my eyes to the true struggle, and beautifully depicted I might add. There are almost thirty poems included in this book, "The Prophet", each addressing a different trial of being human, but this was without question my favorite....

Reason and Passion

And the priestess spoke again and said: 'Speak to us of Reason and Passion.'

And he answered saying:

Your soul is oftentimes a battlefield, upon which your reason and your judgment wage war against passion and your appetite.

Would that I could be the peacemaker in your soul, that I might turn the discord and the rivalry of your elements into oneness and melody.

But how shall I, unless you yourselves be also the peacemakers, nay, the lovers of all your elements?

Your reason and your passion are the rudder and the sails of your seafaring soul.

If either your sails or our 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 its own destruction.

Therefore let your soul exalt your reason to the height of passion; that it may sing;

And let it direct your passion with reason, that your passion may live through its own daily resurrection, and like the phoenix rise above its own ashes.

I would have you consider your judgment and your appetite even as you would two loved guests in your house.

Surely you would not honour one guest above the other; for he who is more mindful of one loses the love and the faith of both.

Among the hills, when you sit in the cool shade of the white poplars, sharing the peace and serenity of distant fields and meadows - then let your heart say in silence, 'God rests in reason.'

And when the storm comes, and the mighty wind shakes the forest, and thunder and lightning proclaim the majesty of the sky, - then let your heart say in awe, 'God moves in passion.'

And since you are a breath In God's sphere, and a leaf in God's forest, you too should rest in reason and move in passion.

-Kahlil Gibran, "The Prophet"

This is a theme we encounter a lot in literature. As we discussed in class, there is a war between the pleasure principle and the reality principle, what we should do and what we want to do. Depending on what we obide by, we fall into two categories. There are the Don Quijotes, who adhere to the pleasure principle and our desires, who see the world but see something else, too. And then there are the Sancho Panzas, the realists, who adhere to the reality principle.