The delicate art of balancing passion with thought

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Pure passion is what prodded our ancestors into action.  Great-great¹⁰⁰ grandpa and grandma were creatures highly motivated by survival, food and sex and prone to violent outrages, threatening gestures, and superstitions in defense of those things.  Lore has it, that closer to my particular twig of the family tree, one of my grandpas and grandmas got interested in doing the right thing, and thought was born in this branch of tree we call Homo sapiens.

A little later on, as lore has it, an extremely remote relative of mine, René Descartes, made a philosophical capitulation, and raised his sword and brought it down with enough force to cut the baby clean in half. The church would get the lower passionate half. Science got the head with all of its thoughts. Other extremely remote relatives of mine came to call this severing in two the Cartesian Split.

What is thought without passion?  Dispassionate, cerebral, dull, heartless masturbation.

What is passion without thought?  My Great-great¹⁰⁰ grandpa and grandma who were highly motivated by survival, food and sex and prone to violent outrages, threatening gestures, and superstitions in defense of those needs.

Passion without thought is insanity.  Thought without passion is weak.  Both, alone, are dangerous and vulnerable.

Beyond passion and thought

My hunch is that evolutionarily speaking we are on the cusp of ushering passion and thought to the altar to be wedded in Holy matrimony.

Together, thought and passion are the perfect soul mates, matched to make good decisions upon which to act, with the winds of science, art and wonder at their backs, pressing forward into the unknown.

The union of the two will require the birth of a new sort of human.  One who is not merely passion or thought, but another who governs over them.  If I am not only my passions, and do not exclusively reside in my thoughts, but am an ever attentive, benevolent overseer of the two, always laboring to mediate a balance between them, then, in the best interest of me, mine and humanity, who am I?

A human who can think about and be with one’s thoughts and passions without being ruled by the two.

Originally published on August 11, 2011.

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Collin Hinds

Senior Writer and editor.
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10 years ago

Sometimes you can have passionate thoughts and get into trouble.

Problem is, if your passionate thoughts are not approved of by the people you are stating them to then the aforementioned people consider you to be ‘stupid’/ ‘racist’ / ‘loony’ etc et al.

If you want to publically state your ‘passionate thoughts’ make sure you are stating them to like minded individuals – otherwise you might get arrested by the ‘politically correct thought police’ 😉

10 years ago

Bloody beautiful Collin. Thanks so much for the introspection.

jenny40
12 years ago

Passion and thought are like oil on water if speaking of emotions. Love and hate, the two primary emotions, are of short and painful duration, meaning we rarely think about them, we are just slaves to them.

Bradley Scott
Reply to  jenny40
12 years ago

I would venture that lust and anger are of short and painful duration. Love and hate are abiding things.

lazersedge
12 years ago

Very interesting philosophical post Collin. The concept that one might have passion, which leads to blind action or to follow the lead of others without thought, is a scary but accurate portrayal of a lot group of humans today. Similarly, thought without passion to act is starkly cold and destined to fiddle as Rome burns. Thought with passion may lead to either good of evil intents depending upon the thoughts of that person unless, of course there is a third additive called compassion.

Bradley Scott
Reply to  lazersedge
12 years ago

I may mangle this thought in the translation, but compassion, yes, is in my opinion the third and more important ingredient. Where passion may spur one to ill-conceieved action, for good or bad, and pure thought produce little but novel ideas, compassion would be the key to staying one’s hand in a rash moment, and conversely cause one to act on their higher ideals.

12 years ago

Excellent passion and thought, but I believe you are WAY beyond the capability of humankind. Look at what happens when passion is mingled with thought: Teabaggers and all sorts of twisted religious fundamentalists and backward thinking morons.
I agree with you 100%, but very few are capable at this point.

Reply to  Sagacious Hillbilly
12 years ago

I think the Tea Party and the Christian Fundamentalists have plenty of passion, but thought and critical thinking is missing.

Collin – Certain individuals, those with close-minded personalities, are reluctant to expose themselves to opposing ideas and thoughts, with or without passion. They will opt for the information that corresponds to their views the majority of the time.

That new human you speak of probably exists, they need to get breeding.

Bradley Scott
Reply to  Holte Ender
12 years ago

Holte and Colin: That new human you speak of is reffered to by my Agnostic friend Frank as ‘Sapien Sapien.’ He claims to be one, and agrees with you, Holte, re breeding! 😉

Bradley Scott
Reply to  Sagacious Hillbilly
12 years ago

‘Never doubt that a small, comitted group of thoughtful citizens can change the world; indeed,it is the only thing that ever has.’ -Margaret Mead
‘Few will lead. Many will follow.’ -BSV

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