It’s Okay to Feel, pt. 2

See part 1

We tend to separate, quite artificially, our “mind/brain” from our “emotions/hearts”. The ancient world didn’t view the mind or emotions as separate things, but as one, which we in English still called “the heart” up until early modern times. The “heart” in this sense was the metaphorical “core” of a person, not the organ we medically call “heart.” But because that pulsating organ in the center of our chest does exist at the core of our chest, the organ also came to be known as the heart. But this core of the person was not merely emotional, as we moderns envision it, but as the core of our being, it was also the seat of our intellect and our will, two abilities we nowadays assign strictly to the “mind”: which according to today’s understanding is strictly contained within the organ called the brain.

How many times have you been told to “think with your brain“ or “listen to your heart”? These expressions translate as “think logically” or “follow your emotions,” respectively. I used to act, as many people do, that thinking with your brain precludes any involvement of the heart, that is, emotions. But I was wrong.

What if I told you that when the Bible says “the heart is deceitful above all things” (Jeremiah 17:9) it means more than just our emotional core? What if I told you it also means our natural logic and reasoning are flawed and deceitful? What I mean is, humanity considers logic pure if it ignores emotion and feelings, like the Vulcans on Star Trek do. And it follows that if this logic is pure, it will lead to pure truths.

But I believe it doesn’t always, in particular when we’re dealing with people. It’s one thing to use pure logic to derive mathematical proofs and chemistry equations. It’s something wholly other to try to apply “pure logic” to living, breathing, emotional people and their politics, situations, lifestyles, preferences, and desires. That is, logic without incorporating the truth of emotions—that feelings exist—is illogical.

Part 3 soon