Desire vs Reason

I was thinking Sunday about how reason should inform us of what is true and what is right and what is good.  This is particularly so if our reason is informed by our conscience, and our conscience by our faith and the Scriptures.

For those not so informed, however, reason devolves into what is naturally a value system derived from what we think is true, right and good, APART from such sources as faith and the Scriptures.  More on this in a minute.

We are often presented today with the supposed truism that if we are more educated, we have more facts to reason with and thus will make better decisions and more "moral" choices.  This supposes the supremacy of reason over other motivations (like emotion and desire).  But even the great proponents of rationalism were also driven by desire.

Desire and reason often work at cross purposes with each other.  Not that desire is bad (although the Stoics thought so) in and of itself, it's simple different.  Each are strong motivators.  Those who argue for the supremacy of reason also believe that as education increases, the power of reason increases and so education leads to the triumph of reason.

Balderdash!  I say.  Poppycock!  Horse hockey, even!  Desire is every bit as strong a motivator as reason and often wins out over it.  The head and the heart can be adversaries... but they don't have to be.  Many desires are reasonable ones:

We desire to be: Loved.  Accepted.  Successful.  Comforted.  Thought (and spoken) well of.  Protected.  Understood.

There's nothing wrong with these things.  They are natural and reasonable desires.  It's when they get out of control that we are seen to "behave irrationally", when our desire to be successful leads to overwork, when our desire to be loved leads to promiscuity, when our desire for protection leads to paranoia.

So, wouldn't it be a good thing to see what we know is true and right and good, and find our where our desires line up with our reason?  When reason and desire can partner up, then motivation can be wholistic and more powerful than if reason and desire oppose each other.

There are times when you can't explain why you want something, you can't explain desire.  From this flows the old saying "the heart has reasons that reason doesn't know."  But if you can think through your desires and discover whether they align well with what you know, then perhaps you will be unified and live a life of well-being.  And that well-being, that "Shalom", will be ever more such if our reason is informed by the Creator and the Author of our faith, who said: "My peace (shalom) I leave with you."

Perhaps I will live a life of well-being, of Shalom, too, if I heed my own advice.

Life in Thirds

In the shower the other day (where almost all big ideas happen - don't ask me why), I thought about human life (at least in the West) in 3 segments.  Maybe it was the occasion of my wife turning 60 this year and my son turning 30 next year.  Whatever the reason I puzzled over what the main purpose was of these 30-year cohorts of time, assuming one lives until 90.

The first 30 years seem to be best described as a period of FORMATION.  You are learning, growing, forming personality and character, settling on a career direction, choosing values and beliefs.  You are becoming who you will be as an adult.

The next 30 years seem to be best described as a period of GENERATION.  Between 30 and 60 most people are out there doing and being what they were formed into in their first 30 years.  They are producing, creating, earning, interacting with others, building relationships, having babies in some cases, and so on.  They are using what they were formed to be in order to generate spouses, heirs, friendships, wealth, service, etc.

Well, if these are true, what then are the last 30 years to be, the years from 60 to 90 (or death, if it comes sooner)?  That, maybe, was the real question I was noodling over.  What should this last third of my life be about?  The conclusion I came to was this:

The last 30 years seem to be best described as a period of DISTRIBUTION.  After age 60 you begin to distribute what you have learned and produced to others who will succeed you, who will come up behind you.  You dispense wisdom you've accumulated, you offer advice based on years of life experience, you arrange to leave your assets to your heirs, you define what your legacy will be, what people will remember you for (at least for 4 generations; see this post for details).

This thought process was helpful, I think.  It reminds me that I have really passed the age of accumulation, and I need to think about what I will be leaving behind.  I suppose it's called "getting your house in order"; but it's also called "leaving a legacy".  I was formed into who I am today a long time ago.  I have only a few years left to generate wealth or accumulate useful life experience.  Soon I will be faced with sharing all that with others - to communicate, to share, to give, to leave it behind (hopefully in some meaningful and organized fashion).

FORMING, GENERATING, DISTRIBUTING.

I think that covers it.