Prophetic Indeed!
Welcome to 3 Things You Can Use, where Maddi
and I analyze the worlds of lifestyle and
entrepreneurship through books, three things
at a time.
This week's book is The Prophet, by Kahlil
Gibran.
Amazon describes it as being,
"(...) one of 
the most beloved classics of our time.
Published in 1923, it has been translated
into more than twenty languages, and the American
editions alone have sold more than nine million
copies.
The Prophet is a collection of poetic essays
that are philosophical, spiritual, and, above
all, inspirational.
Gibran’s musings are divided into twenty-eight
chapters covering such sprawling topics as
love, marriage, children, giving, eating and
drinking, work, joy and sorrow, housing, clothes,
buying and selling, crime and punishment,
laws, freedom, reason and passion, pain, self-knowledge,
teaching, friendship, talking, time, good
and evil, prayer, pleasure, beauty, religion,
and death..."
This book is 96 pages hardcover and 1 hour
14 minutes Audible.
And for this book, I'm going to read you my
three favorite passages from the book and
give you interpretations.
1.
Work
You work that you may keep pace with the earth
and the soul of the earth
For to be idle is to become a stranger unto
the seasons, and to step out of life’s procession
that marches in majesty and proud submission
towards the infinite
When you work you are a flute through whose
heart the whispering of hours turns to music.
Which of you would be a reed, dumb and silent,
when all else sings together in unison?
Always you have been told that work is a curse
and labor a misfortune.
But I say to you that when you work you fulfil
a part of earth’s furthest dream, assigned
to you when that dream was born,
And in keeping yourself with labor you are
in truth loving life,
And to love life through labor is to be intimate
with life’s inmost secret.
So what he's saying here is that loving work
and working with love is a solution to life.
That everyone has to work and those who don't
put effort into their work and those who sarcastically
do their work will never be living at their
best and loving life.
And he goes on to say:
But I say, not in sleep, but in the over wakefulness
of noontide, that the wind speaks not more
sweetly to the giant oaks than to the least
of all the blades of grass
Which is to say that the job you do doesn't
matter.
Whether you're a heart surgeon or a janitor,
the job isn't what matters, loving your job
and working at your best is.
2.
Joy and Sorrow
Your joy is your sorrow unmasked.
And the selfsame well from which your laughter
rises was oftentimes filled with your tears.
And how else can it be?
The deeper that sorrow carves into your being,
the more joy you can contain.
Is not the cup that holds your wine the very
cup that was burned in the potter’s oven?
And is not the lute that soothes your spirit
the very wood that was hollowed with knives?
When you are joyous, look deep into your heart
and you shall find it is only that which has
given you sorrow that is giving you joy.
When you are sorrowful, look again in your
heart, and you shall see that in truth you
are weeping for that which has been your delight.
Some of you say, “Joy is greater than sorrow,”
and others say, “Nay, sorrow is the greater.”
But I say unto you, they are inseparable.
Together they come, and when one sits alone
with you at your board, remember that the
other is asleep upon your bed.
So a life with no sorrow is a life with no
joy.
There is no one without the other and the
deeper one goes, the deeper the other can
go.
Living without sorrow is living without joy.
A life at baseline is a life with neither.
3.
Reason and Passion
Your soul is oftentimes a battlefield, upon
which your reason and your judgement wage
war against your passion and your appetite.
Would that I could be the peacemaker in your
soul, that I might turn the discord and the
rivalry of your elements into oneness and
melody.
But how shall I, unless you yourselves be
also the peacemakers, nay, the lovers of all
your elements?
Your reason and your passion are the rudder
and the sails of your seafaring soul.
If either your sails or your rudder be broken,
you can but toss and drift, or else be held
at a standstill in mid-seas.
For reason, ruling alone, is a force confining;
and passion, unattended, is a flame that burns
to it’s own destruction.
Therefore let your soul exalt your reason
to the height of passion, that it may sing;
And let it direct your passion with reason,
that your passion may live through its own
daily resurrection, and like the phoenix rise
above its own ashes.
I would have you consider your judgement and
your appetite even as you would two loved
guests in your house.
Surely you would not honor one guest above
the other; for he who is more mindful of one
loses the love and the faith of both.
He's talking about playing into your dreams
here.
Ignoring your dreams and being completely
rational and reasonable will kill you and
going for your dreams without any thought,
plan or guidelines will kill you.
The idea here is risk mitigation.
Don't give up on your dreams but also don't
chase after a wild goose without a chicken
as a backup.
Recap:
Work is unavoidable.
Working with love and loving your work is
the everlasting solution to your misery against
labor.
Joy and sorrow are like yin and yang, hot
and cold and black and white.
One doesn't exist without the other.
Always remember that when with one, the other
is around the corner.
Reason and passion.
Don't give in completely to one or the other.
If they're not balanced on the scales they
will both prove hopeless to you.
This was great.
I remember hearing the first few paragraphs
and thinking to myself, "oh god what have
I done."
The language was arcane and practically incomprehensible
and I had no idea what he was going on about.
But as he settled into each of his segments,
framing the book with a prophet answering
the questions of the people around him, I
realized that this was going to be awesome.
And it was.
It is poetry and it is arcane so it takes
some concentration and afterthought to bring
each thought to light.
He tackles each concept with awesome metaphors
and wisdom.
I highly recommend it!
I found it for free and you can check it out
below.
Thank's for watching, make sure to subscribe,
and we'll see you next week!
