Morning Coffee with Rumi…

This morning, over a cup of coffee, a colleague from the sciences and I contemplated various ways in which knowledge can be married with action. While he was arguing that the humanities have made themselves irrelevant, he said, “Even Rumi says you need to keep digging your ditch…”

The quest to wed knowledge and action–be it through rigorous self-development or selfless service to others–is a theme which features prominently in the poems of Rumi–who left his own prestigious academic post behind–to seek experiential knowledge of the “heart” instead…

Work. Keep digging your well.
Don’t think about getting off from work.
Water is there somewhere.

— Rumi