Reason and Passion

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Reason and Passion by Kahlil Gibran

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.

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Why I chose Kahlil Gibran's poem "Reason and Passion" to address the subject of reason and passion is because of the obvious mastery of both aspects of truth he has displayed in its formation. By way of poetic structure Gibran was able to successfully show the reader that it is when reason and passion are caused to be pitted against one another as if they are polar opposites that suffering is effected.

Because as children reasoning or thinking for oneself is often not encouraged, it is critical to take time to move passion aside so reason can be developed. To go into the wilderness of one's own mind to breathe the still air of "I am, therefore I think." To leave behind the impassioned "they say" voices of family, teachers, counselors and priests so that one's singular voice of "why" and "what" can be heard clearly, without filter and without prejudice. And finally, to discover that when one's singular voice of reasoning has been claimed that the passion they moved aside for reason's sake can now be reclaimed.

A soul that denies the necessity of passion is a fool for in its denial of passion, it is expressing passion. Just as a soul that denies the necessity of reason is a fool for in its denial of reason, it is using reason. For the sake of sanity and joy, it is time to see reason and passion in their truth as Gibran sees them in their truth: as integrated sides of the one coin that is the wholeness of Man.

[Kunga]

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