In a compelling scene from smash-hit film Legally Blonde (2001), a stern, commanding professor says “The law is reason free from passion. Does anyone know who spoke those immortal words?”. Apparently the answer is Aristotle, but I don’t think this is a direct quote. (Fun fact: “Excellence is not an act, but a habit” is also oft attributed to Aristotle, but it comes from Will Durant who wished to sum up an Aristotelian point in The Story of Philosophy)
In my brief time studying law, I personally experienced this passionlessness; so much so that I took up part-time courses in poetry and creative writing just to keep my soul alive. Funnily enough, my writing teacher was a former defamation lawyer who went on to become an award-winning poet. His soul too needed to break free! He and I suffered from passion-withdrawal and intuitively felt that the arts were the remedy.
On a broader level, leaning extremely into any one position or personality trait or aspect of experience can be impoverishing. It is dangerous and limiting to form one’s ego around the nuclei of extremes, especially because this often happens quietly, subconsciously and insidiously.
“I am a man, therefore it is admirable and right to lean into masculine qualities to the exclusion of the feminine” “I am a liberal, therefore I must regard every conservative person and/or dictum with opprobrium” “I am a lawyer or scientist or engineer, therefore it is right to make decisions on the basis of reason to the exclusion of irrational emotions”
These divisions are just narrow stories we tell ourselves to make things more convenient for our finite, monkey minds. There are no “masculine” and “feminine” traits unless we label them so. Instead there can be traits, policies and decision-making tools that are more or less appropriate for the situation without the need for labels. Transcending division we find richness.
To borrow a thought from Shakespeare’s Hamlet: there are no divisions in the world, thinking makes it (apparently) so. Replace the appearance of what seems with the suchness of what is. Personally, I have found integration and transcendence of apparent division incredibly freeing and enriching. Masculine with feminine. Liberal with conservation. Passions with reasons.
Passions with Reasons - Musings from heart and mind. 