Beyond Rationality

On Saturday morning I was sitting at my desk. All of the lights went out. I looked at our fuse board. The main switch had tripped. I switched it on again; it tripped out again.

My electrical knowledge and expertise has significant limitations. I tried to think logically, rationally. There’s a fault somewhere… I switched all of the individual circuits off, flicked the main switch ‘on’, then turned on each circuit.

It was the shower circuit that put everything out. I tried again a couple of times. The shower circuit was faulty. I left it off. Logic rules!

Paul the electrician came on Monday. He switched the shower on. All was OK. No fault at all. Two days later there’s still no problem. It’s beyond rationality.

I love this poster. I’m neither an early bird or a night owl; I’m just an exhausted pigeon. Common wisdom, logic, says there are two options; ‘beyond rationality’ says there’s a third. That’s me.

Yesterday my friend Peter was describing his visit to an art gallery. There was a picture of a duck with ‘RABBIT’ written underneath it. Peter expressed his opinion very clearly. Common sense knows that a duck’s a duck. That’s more important that artistic appreciation.

I came home and remembered the old optical illusion that you can see as a rabbit or a duck. One or the other? Both? Beyond rationality?

A.J. Jacobs says: When I first read the parable of the prodigal son I was perplexed. I felt terrible for the older brother. The poor man had put in all these years of loyal service, and his brother skips town, has a wild good time and then returns, and gets a huge feast? It seems outrageously unfair.

But that’s if you’re thinking quantitively. If you’re looking at life as a balance sheet. There’s a beauty to forgiveness, especially forgiveness that goes beyond rationality. Unconditional love is an illogical notion, but such a great and powerful one.

Beauty… forgiveness… unconditional love… beyond rationality.