the Wisdom of the Heart, and that of the Head.
The
Wisdom of the Heart, our Occidental/Christian/Greek Wisdom, teaches us
that we are all Individuals, unique and irreplaceable. We have our own
personal vision of things, and (crazy as some of us may seem!) each has
its own validity, its own worth, and is a priceless contribution to the
Whole. As Pablo Neruda (?) said, when a person dies, a whole world
disappears with them…
Of course, when two Individuals like this
get together, well, a Beautiful New Thing appears between them, too.
Two individuals, unique on earth, finding each other, discovering,
understanding, enjoying each other with all their insights and
crazinesses, and their love for each other creates a special bond that
is so amazing that it feels like it could outlast Time and Death…
And
then there’s the Wisdom of the Head, the
Eastern/Buddhist/Hindu Wisdom that teaches that All Things Will Pass:
this world is just part of a mind-blowingly huge Galaxy, and one
day the galaxy itself will disappear. We are, after all, so very, very
Small…
There are what, over six BILLION people on earth? Of which I am one? And I can still think that I matter? Why don’t I just See that
all my problems are really so very unimportant, that the little
Tempests in Teapots that I create in my daily life are actually pretty ridiculous?
And that if I have a relationship, how can I expect the other to be perfect, and to always be there for me? How can I possibly hope that the other will never
change, leave or die, that I will never change, leave or die, that we will be Together, in
our Perfect Hollywood Happiness, Forever? Can’t I see the Reality of how feelings and people change and disappear
as we go through our Crazy Lives?
And after all, there are so many people I could have been attracted to: I just happened to meet and love this
particular person because of certain circumstances in my life which
were totally random, and completely out of my control…
The Heart is
Personal,
Subjective,
Feeling-Based,
Complicated,
Harrowing,
Loving,
Involved…
The Head is
Universal,
Objective,
Vision-Based,
Simple,
Light,
Independent,
Free…
The Head says:
There are other fish in the sea: don’t worry, you’ll get over it…
And the Heart says:
You will remember her, you will remember him, forever…
The weird thing is, they’re both right…
I have a Heart and I have a Head: I want to respect both of these Wisdoms.
Some people in my life matter so much to me.
They are part of me, not only part of my personal
history, my past,
but they are in my thoughts even from moment to moment,
and they continue to affect me in so many ways.
Their vision of their worlds, their joys
and their sadnesses, change me:
I am so deeply Connected to them…
When I
lose contact with them, I wonder so often:
Where are they? How are they doing?
And yet
I know that life still goes on,
and I see the sun
rise again in beautiful blue skies with white cotton clouds;
I
have other friends, and in this Crazy World, Shit Happens…
There
is even a kind of Cosmic Humor there, after all,
that I
should take myself and my feelings about them so Seriously…
And yet I still enjoy them so much,
and when they’re gone I miss them so much…
So how is it possible that these two Wisdoms could exist side by side?
Well, they do…
And I don’t want to choose One,
and pretend that the Other doesn’t exist…
