Romance Vs Reason

Harmony is a funny term. It may not mean the same thing to different people and they can all be right at the same time. I had been trying to draw the perfect line of harmony between romantic tendencies and reason, with very confusing results. Please don't mistake my use of the word 'romance' for 'love'. Here, I am referring to being ardent, passionate or fervent with little or no regard for feasibility. Being a PhD student in Physics, I tend to be more logical than romantic. My first reaction to anything new is to analytically dissect it into pieces and reassemble them in all possible permutations and combinations. For somebody relying on physics to be his source of bread and butter, this may not sound so bad. However, I sometimes sense a lack of feelings. Too much of logic makes man mechanical.

On the other hand, being romantic doesn't fit into our current society very well. At every step, we are forced to make decisions that can change the course of our lives. For example, we had to choose between 'science' and 'arts' in school before we were legally allowed to even choose our leaders in an election! Being fanciful or utterly idealistic won't help in making the right decisions. Competition is fierce in today's world, and more is the demand for a pragmatic approach. How then do we strike balance between these two facets of human life? If good reasoning guides us to our goal, it is romance that adds color to the journey!

Have you noticed that I have clinically dissected this issue already? It helps me gain insight but it also deprives me of emotions. It is sort of a conundrum. To find the optimal balance I need to understand the issue first. However, an attempt to understand inevitably destroys the balance. Anyways, keeping this shortcoming aside, let's continue with our analysis. The crucial step is to define 'happiness'. Being successful in one's career or earning lots of money doesn't necessarily imply a fulfilled life. Partying all the time wont lead to long lasting happiness either. Requirements for a content life may differ from one person to another, but it is clearly the key to reaching the optimal state. So, the question we need to answer now is "How do we stay happy?". My answer is "flow with the natural current". One needs to live in the present and let things take their natural course. It means that one's effort should be in the direction of the flow and not against it. One wise Zen master once said, " Through non-action, everything can be done". I just wish it was so simple.