Isn’t it interesting that we call ourselves rational beings? Apparently, we are supposed to make rational choices based on some set of inputs. This is what the economists say about us. We should behave according to some pre-established pathway of what makes sense for a human being - rules inherent to what’s in our “best interest”. Based on what we know about the calories that are good for us, we should be eating a certain set of foods to fuel us in the right way. Based on the type of investments and savings we know are good for us, we should be saving to a certain degree in a certain way every month. And based on what we know we should get done today, we should budget a schedule that fits in everything it should, from feeding the dogs to watering the plants to folding the giant pile of laundry on the big brown chair in the room. We should do lots of things if our behavior were truly rational.
The economists like to say that deviation from rationality is a flaw in human nature. But I very much think of it as the essence and foundation of our humanity. And in the best way possible. It is the main indicator and guide for our direction in life. Which music to play, or which plants to put in which windows, are all based on something indescribable - an intuition, a gut feeling, an energetic vibe. It’s based on the soul. Our own needle of energy that takes into account the beauty of the moment, what we’re feeling, the energy of the day, and our surroundings all into one, felt intuition towards the path that makes sense to us.
Take the way my wife and I operate to schedule out a day. We have found that when we schedule our days down to the hour, we end up feeling constrained against our own impositions of time - like we’ve put ourselves into a box that we immediately want to break out of. In short, it’s not what we need. It’s not the vibe.
Instead, this morning, we decided to take the day minute by minute, hour by hour based on the feel of the moment, as much as we possibly could. It allowed for a constant, in-touch feeling with the energy of the day, and the way our being meets in the world. This morning, I woke up first, decided to send an email that was on my mind, then found myself meditating on the front porch with my wife, completely unplanned. I then decided the moment called for some exercise, so I went for a run, and she for a walk. We then came home and made bacon, eggs, and pancakes and talked about the pros of metal spatulas vs wooden spoons. All quite unplanned.
You see, life works best when we allow ourselves to flow with the moments, guided by the energy and our own souls’ inclinations towards the day. What’s the vibe? What feels right in this moment? Were this to have been a rational day - we would have slept to a demarcated hour, stretched according to a set of prescribed movements, and eaten something that was decidedly more cardboard-tasting because it was “good for us”. But what some detached economists are missing is that this IS good for us. It’s good for us in the most foundational way, which is the way of our being. The way of our souls. As humans, we live our lives as artful expressions and moments of beauty, rather than through mechanistic executions of programs that are supposedly in our best interest. We are non-rational beings and we can’t help it. Because the irrationality is what leads to a full and good life.
Think about music, both why certain people like certain types of music, or the type suited for that particular chunk of that 9-hour car ride to Columbus, Ohio. Irrational. there is no rhyme or reason to the music we love. We just do. Think about love and attraction - the way that I am attracted to my wife with a particular depth and inexplicable captivation - completely irrational, and completely wonderful. Or beauty, the way we set up a home, position plants, or let out a breath as we are taken by the view at the top of our 4-hour climb up a mountain. Beauty is wondrously and brilliantly irrational. We cannot deduce reasons why it hits us the way it does. There is no “point” to beauty, except that it is, in it of itself, lovely and true.
Our lives are not mechanistic. They are not based on a series of inputs that will produce a series of results. Even economics is noticing this. The Freakonomics podcast is littered with examples of irrational human behavior that are “not in our best economic interest”, yet we do them anyway. It turns out they are in the best interest of our soul and our being, things that blessedly and wondrously cannot be quantified, graphed, or mechanized. They remain untouched by science and statistics.
We guide our lives based on vibe, intuition, and instinct. This is the way we are built and the way we are guided towards depth, beauty, joy, and meaning.
Continue to sharpen yours, practice the art of knowing them, and get the reps in on listening to your gut and the exact way to live out a moment or a season. You know it already. You just need to listen to the deeper part of you, the more irrational and beauty-guided part of you.
Don’t listen to the folks telling you to be rational. Because they’re telling you to shed your humanity. Put your plants where the vibe tells you to, travel to the unknown place on instinct, and live each moment guided by intuition.