Reason and Intuition are our companions for life. They walk into our lives at different stages and in different ways, but they are there to stay. Their characters and personalities are as different as night and day, leaving us ripped apart like the guy whose best friends don't get on well with each other.
Although, intuition comes early into our lives, he is shy and quiet. Like a reticent boy of few words, he speaks in quiet, muffled sounds. He goes unnoticed many a times and gets chided at many others, like the little child gently tugging at your trousers in a crowded marketplace. You have to strain to hear him as the world around drowns his words. Although, he grows with us, he is forever the gentle voice that we fail to hear as we struggle with making sense of the many voices in our head.
Reason, on the other hand has the stronger voice which keeps booming relentlessly in our head, making a point. The world basks in his glory and makes it seem like he can do no wrong. You like him too but sometimes, he is just too dictatorial and self righteous. With the years and the grey hairs, you rely on reason a lot more, but, he is never really your confidante. He is never really your sounding board, the friend who understands you, the friend who cares. He says the right things, not necessarily the things "right" for you. One is almost always fighting with him, trying to scream over his high pitch, trying to get heard. Even though, the voice of reason is loud and clear, it fails to find resonance in our heart. Reason fails to accept our fears and our limitations. Intuition on the other hand dwells in the unstated and in the unclear. He seems to have this uncanny ability to know what you want and guide you through life with a gentle hand. Quite unlike the pushes and shoves of reason.
With the years and the loud voices of reason echoing in our head, we fail to hear the whispers of intuition. So much so that somewhere along the way, we have forgotten that little friend whispering his fears and thoughts as we spend our days catching up with the voice of reason. But he is always there beside you and you can hear him when all the chatter in your head has quietened down... On some of those days, when nothing and no one seems to understand you, when your mind is dead with fatigue, when nothing seems to make sense, you can hear him whisper in a gentle but comforting manner....And you can feel life again. You can hear his pulse throbbing to the beat of your heart and things seem to fall in place.
All our life, we walk with these two. Sometimes relying on one and sometimes on the other. Disturbed by their contradicting voices, sometimes, you try and reconcile them. Sometimes, you invent reason to follow your intuition and at other times, you follow reason with a firm grip on intuition. But more often than not, while one is leading your way, the other is watching your back... and its good to never lose sight of either, because they both bring in different perspectives.
Although, intuition comes early into our lives, he is shy and quiet. Like a reticent boy of few words, he speaks in quiet, muffled sounds. He goes unnoticed many a times and gets chided at many others, like the little child gently tugging at your trousers in a crowded marketplace. You have to strain to hear him as the world around drowns his words. Although, he grows with us, he is forever the gentle voice that we fail to hear as we struggle with making sense of the many voices in our head.
Reason, on the other hand has the stronger voice which keeps booming relentlessly in our head, making a point. The world basks in his glory and makes it seem like he can do no wrong. You like him too but sometimes, he is just too dictatorial and self righteous. With the years and the grey hairs, you rely on reason a lot more, but, he is never really your confidante. He is never really your sounding board, the friend who understands you, the friend who cares. He says the right things, not necessarily the things "right" for you. One is almost always fighting with him, trying to scream over his high pitch, trying to get heard. Even though, the voice of reason is loud and clear, it fails to find resonance in our heart. Reason fails to accept our fears and our limitations. Intuition on the other hand dwells in the unstated and in the unclear. He seems to have this uncanny ability to know what you want and guide you through life with a gentle hand. Quite unlike the pushes and shoves of reason.
With the years and the loud voices of reason echoing in our head, we fail to hear the whispers of intuition. So much so that somewhere along the way, we have forgotten that little friend whispering his fears and thoughts as we spend our days catching up with the voice of reason. But he is always there beside you and you can hear him when all the chatter in your head has quietened down... On some of those days, when nothing and no one seems to understand you, when your mind is dead with fatigue, when nothing seems to make sense, you can hear him whisper in a gentle but comforting manner....And you can feel life again. You can hear his pulse throbbing to the beat of your heart and things seem to fall in place.
All our life, we walk with these two. Sometimes relying on one and sometimes on the other. Disturbed by their contradicting voices, sometimes, you try and reconcile them. Sometimes, you invent reason to follow your intuition and at other times, you follow reason with a firm grip on intuition. But more often than not, while one is leading your way, the other is watching your back... and its good to never lose sight of either, because they both bring in different perspectives.
2 comments:
Let me do an "open source" extension of this story with three more characters:
1) Experience: This guy is like The Godfather, Don Corleone; he knows a lot of stuff. His word gets things done and bears a lot of weight from the street to the boardroom; There is no reasoning with him. You just do as he says, Kapisch? He could be Reason's friend because Reason says not to disobey him! On the other hand he usually doesn't provide reasons why he does what he does - everyone's afraid to ask too many questions.`
2) Common Sense: This is guy is a street "soldier" in the Don's mafia army. So he is definitely not a friend of Experience. He fears Experience and has learned a few tricks of the trade from him but relies more on his friend Intuition and Intuition's street fighting cousin, Instinct to get him out of hard places.
3) Instinct: This guy is a total washout, a street level thug with his sight focused on the prize immediately in front of him - the old lady's purse! He is beholden to Intuition, his richer cousin and does his bidding from time to time
4) Intuition: This guy was born with a Golden spoon and has stumbled into luck and wealth with the help of his Wall Street connections. He is a Wall Street Quant by profession and utilizes Speculation and Group Psychology. He has become richer while his investors have become poorer. Definitely not a friend of Reason. He keeps his street thug cousin, Instinct on his pay to keep his investors in check by means of force when required.
One last character I missed in my previous post:
Sixth Sense: This feller is a drug addict. He provides some useful information occasionally or very rarely to the street thug, Instinct (see previous comment on other characters) in exchange for drugs.
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