Three Passions

I find this poem by Bertrand Russell so apt and significant in my life:

“Three passions have governed my life:
The longings for love, the search for knowledge,
And the unbearable pity for the suffering of humankind.

Love brings ecstasy and relieves loneliness.
In the union of I have seen
In a mystic miniature the prefiguring vision
Of the heavens that saints and poets have imagined.

With equal passion I have sought knowledge.
I have wished to understand the hearts of people.
I have wished to know why the stars shine.

Love and knowledge led upwards to the heavens,
But always pity brought me back to earth;
Cries of pain reverberated in my heart
Of children in famine, of victims tortured
And of old people left helpless.
I long to alleviate the evil, but I cannot,
And I too suffer.

This has been my life; I found it worth living.”

Such a coincidence that I sought love first in my life and after having found it, I sought knowledge (refer to my earlier post on dreams). My loved ones supported me in this quest for knowledge. Love and knowledge gave me strength to reach towards stars. But suffering always brings me down, before I gather my strength and continue on my journey upwards.