The Artist and the Philosopher

I find two different orientations competing within myself. No, I'm not referring to the Old Man and the New Man of Romans 7, though I feel that struggle too.

Instead, I'm refering to the struggle between the Artist and the Philosopher in me.

Right now, it's 5-9, with the Philosopher in the lead.

Ha-ha. That was a joke. Sort of. My inner Philosopher is a rather buff fellow who definitely has the upper hand right now. Not that the Artist is a pansy ... she's just a lot younger and not quite as experienced or self-assured.

In other, less metaphorical words, I've just recently begun harnessing and disciplining this artistic side of me, while the philosophical side of me has been developing since I was young. Anyways, watching them struggle to work together has taught me some important life principles concerning the relationship between the Head and the Heart, and it's affect on the Will.

Traditionally, the Artist has represented passions, feelings, and emotions. In a word,

the Artist = Heart.

Meanwhile, the Philosopher has historically represented ideas, facts, and logic. In a word,

the Philosopher = Head.

But I've realized that neither the Philosopher nor the Artist is totally devoid of characterstics of the other. That is, the Artist is not all feeling and no thinking. Neither is the Philosopher all thought and no passion. When I'm creating, my first instinct is to get out my laptop and sketch out an outline in Microsoft Word. Likewise, when I'm philosophizing, my voice changes pitch and my hands jerk up and down emphatically.

Neither art nor philosophy was meant to be either soley passion-filled or logic-based. Both must involve passion and logic.

Similarly, neither the Heart nor the Head can truly function apart from the functioning of the other. Or at least, neither can lead the Will singlehandedly. That's because we're wired to only act out of our experience.

When we KNOW something in our mind, and FEEL it in our heart, we EXPERIENCE it. And when we experience a truth, our will inevitably kicks in.

We can't sacrifice either the knowing or the feeling of something; doing so cheats us of the experience of the truth and circumvents our wills from following truth.

So to sum up, let the wedding bells ring; the Philosopher and the Artist are getting married ...