Reason is crippled

As the old Sufi story goes, one day a blind man was walking through the woods. He tripped and fell over something in his path. Something bony, with a pulse. Turns out that he had tripped over a crippled man who was laying on the forest floor. This poor fellow had been trapped in the woods for a long time without the ability to move. So now there they were, both of them stuck. The blind fellow couldn’t see his way out on his own. The crippled fellow couldn’t walk on his own. What were they to do?

After a brief discussion of their predicament the crippled man had a bright idea. “What if you put me on your shoulders, then I will use my eyes to guide us both out on the power of your legs?” And so began a wonderful forest collaboration. Soon both were free.

The End.

So what’s the moral of the story?

The great thing about stories like this is that they are open to many different valid interpretations. For me, this is a story about the value of partnerships, the power of intuition, and the limits of human reason.

I spent many years (too many?) in the academic world, spinning my wheels with a bunch of bright, highly rational beings who for the most part seemed completely dispassionate about the content they were being taught. With all of my excess rambunctiousness and wonder, I was often dumbfounded by this culture of  apathy and inertia. Eventually, I left. I became a grubby academic outcast, leaving the cold rational world of academia behind for the bright lights of bohemian Brooklyn, NYC.

Years later, when I  checked in with many of them I found that most of them were doing quite well in the world. Most now have safe jobs in big corporations with the letter ‘PhD’ next to their names. Most now have nice houses and shiny cars. Most now have already amassed impressive retirement savings. And most now seem bored silly and vaguely disenchanted with their lives. Chubby with comfort. Trapped on the proverbial forest floor, waiting for their own inner blind man to give legs to their long buried vision of emotional vitality and freedom.

Let’s face it: Reason is a wonderful tool, but without the juice of inner passion it is impotent.

Albert Einstein once confessed  “I never discovered anything with my rational mind.”

Discovery happens when we let go of reason and embrace life’s mystery, our own inherent blindness.  Only then does reason find its proper place, helping us harness these insights to escape the woolly wilderness of our unbridled passions.

Alone, emotion is blind and reason is crippled.

Together, they are a creative partnership that cannot be stopped.