ThirstyFish

"Free Poems" at Union Square.

In the developed world, we almost exclusively consider education from a functional and economic point of view. We go to school to get a job. We "learn" in order to make money. Education gives us titles; engineer, doctor, lawyer, scientist which in turn give us status in society. One would think, once we complete our education, our lives come together and we live happily ever after.

But it turns out that "forces of life" require a lot more than what a functional education provides us. Many of us end up questioning the the meaning of our lives. We find out that we do not know how to deal with conflict. When our great expectations are not fulfilled, we are disappointed, and fall into a state of grief and even depression. We become selfish, apathetic to the plight of others, and sometimes outright hurtful. Functional education provides us with very little to deal with the "non-rational" forces of life.

Religion, art, poetry, and philosophy attempt to educate us in these "non-rational" forces of life. Deep religious understanding, true art, and philosophy require that we free ourselves and our minds whereas functional education promotes that we follow defined sets of rules. The ineffable, the "non-rational", is almost always better communicated through poems, jokes, and koans than through logic or prose.

• I saw grief drinking a cup of sorrow and called out,
• It tastes sweet, does it not?
• You have caught me, grief answered, and you have ruined my business.
• How can I sell sorrow, when you know it's a blessing?
• -- Rumi; Excerpt from The Soul of Rumi

Song of the Day: Mull Of Kintyre - Paul McCartney and Wings (1977)