Necessities

It would be untruthful to say there are only a handful of books that have changed the way I see the world around me. Yet, it is with absolute honesty that I can say there are only a handful of books that have changed the way I think about how I see the world around me. I'm not sure where exactly it lies, but Letters to a Young Poet is without question within reach. 

In the early 1900s a young German poet sent his work to Rainer Maria Rilke, asking him for advice on how to mold himself into a writer. For the next five years, Rilke sealed his wisdom and his heart into envelopes addressed to the young poet. After Rilke's death, the letters were bound and published, leaving us to crave letters of such honesty and beauty addressed to us. 

In one of his letters, Rilke talks about the futility of a life lived without passion. With words alone, he drops us into a world that necessitates throwing every piece of ourselves into something. For the young poet, it is the desperate, unending passion for his work. For Rilke, it is making clear the power and pleasure of love. It is left to us alone to mold of head and heart passions to call our own. The subject and context are not important -- the presence of passion is indispensable:

"Believe that with your emotions and your work that you are taking part in the greatest." 

It is impossible to deny that there is something inherently entrancing about people who have conquered the manifestation of passion within themselves. So many of my brilliant and beautiful friends have found what it is that drives them, or, perhaps just as importantly, lent thought to the cognition of living passionately. I adore them. I'm addicted to every moment of conversation that comes with brightly lit eyes and words spilling faster than our mouths can organize. I want to know every heart that beats wholly with the passion that keeps it from crumbling. Please teach me your mind -- how does it work?

Metacognition is a big word for a simple idea: knowing about knowing. It's a dangerous idea -- thinking about thinking. The risk of getting lost is great, and overwhelmed greater. Still, it seems the risk carries a weight far more enticing than the safety of a mind left unexplored.