“The best and most beautiful things in this world cannot be seen or even heard but must be felt with the heart.”
These words were said by the first deaf-blind person to ever earn a Bachelor of Arts Degree from Radcliffe College at Harvard University and who was later awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom – Helen Adams Keller.
As someone who was both deaf and blind, Helen Keller had no choice but to develop her other senses at a much higher intensity than most of the rest of us. If she hadn’t stayed true to her unique expression and deprived the world of it, on the basis that she had a “handicap,” a social construction that is limiting, we all would have lost out.
And in the process of allowing her true and unique expression to come forth, Helen Keller has given us a powerful gift, an exceptional insight, and a piece of wisdom, that transcends all ages, all social constructs, all beliefs, and all sciences. It is that “the best and most beautiful things in this world cannot be seen or even heard but must be felt with the heart.”
The best scientists in the world, including the Nobel Prize Laureates, have unanimously drawn a similar conclusion, one that can be seen from philosophy to religion, from spirituality to science, and from metaphysics and back. It all boils down to that which can be experienced and felt only through the heart.
The question that bears now is, what is it that can be experienced and felt only with the heart? Another way to ask the same question is, what are the things that cannot be heard, or seen, or tasted, or touched, but can only be felt; experienced with the heart?
The philosopher, who perhaps has had the biggest impact on all branches of philosophies, of science, and of all derivative fields, is Heraclitus. He has one of his most profound and famous quotes that states, “Nothing endures but change.” Those who have come after him, have been able to build upon his profound idea to then complete it. As such, we now understand that not only, “Nothing endures except change;” but also “Nothing endures because nothing is absolute.” Today, we also know that not only is it that “Nothing endures because nothing is absolute,” but that which does not change is the only constant, also known as, “the absolute.”
In this spirit, the 1918 Nobel Prize Laureate in Physics, Max Planck, helped us to understand what this “absolute,” is. He described it as that force behind everything, which was later on described by other scientists as that Life Force. In 1994, the Nobel Laureate, Mathematician, John Nash, described this, as human interaction, as human experience, as human interdependence, and as love.
If the best and most beautiful things in this world cannot be seen or even heard; if the best and most beautiful things in this world must be felt with the heart; if love is that absolute thing that must be experienced and felt; it is worth looking closer into this four-letter word that we call LOVE.
We all likely to have different things to say about Love. Yet, this does not mean Love itself changes; this does not mean that Love is not absolute; this does not mean that Love is not that which can be only experienced and felt with the heart. Rather, it is that our definition of Love has been learned through the lens of our socialization and that each time we are talking about love, we are in fact talking about anything except Love.
We are about to enter a new chapter in our self-expression series. We have looked at the why, the how, and the what of contribution. We have looked at contribution as it relates to us, to others, and to the world; and we have begun to look at our self-concept, who we are to ourselves, who we are to others, and who we are to the world. We have also gone through a series of inquiries, exploring what self-expression is, can or could be all about, and how we can position ourselves to ensure we do not deprive the world of that unique contribution that only we can offer.
While this remains an ongoing process, we are now entering new territory, where we are going to get real; to go from the theoretical to the practical, but for that, we need not miss the essence of it all; that Force, as it was called by one of the best scientific minds of all times; that human connection, as it was called by another brilliant and beautiful mind; and yes, that which can be only felt with the heart, as it was called by our beloved Helen Keller.
And now, onto you:
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What is Love?
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What is Love to you?
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How is “Love”, as explained by those above and similar minds, different from “love” as we hear it talked about by those around us, on a daily basis?
One minute to each of the above questions will require only three minutes a day to participate in this inquiry. And given the importance of this new territory, we are about to enter; we will plan to visit this article on three consecutive Sundays. Therefore, let us read it mindfully, slowly, allowing each word to stimulate the type of insight and wisdom we will take on the next step on our path of self-expression and contribution.
Thank you for being you-the unique you. And thank you for expressing YOU.
With Love,
Karen and Mardoche