The Soul

Of all the things to find out in Old Age:

I have a soul!

It’s a poor one, as you might well imagine,

having gone undetected so long;

and even now, it is shackled to reason,

needing Mind to be seen at all.

However, it is not subordinate to it;

in fact, it is superior.

Still, we have to give Reason a star,

or a feather or something, for finding it.

But enough of beating about the bush,

except for one last revelation,

(offered to show my ignorance

and aid your assessment of this):

I honestly didn’t know what was meant

by the popular phrase, ‘Mind, Body and Soul’,

believing that Soul must be Mind.

But now I see how wrong I was! 

I was wrong: I was wrong. 

I was wrong because

Freud and others, most of them artists,

had shown for sure that whatever moves us

is very much more than mind.

‘Moves,’ Gentle Reader, is the crucial word.

The Soul is Motivation:

Rightly or Wrongly, it makes us go.

Soul is other than Body and Mind.

And Soul is the essence that drives them.

Then is The Soul The Unconscious Mind?

I can’t think of any alternative.

If you can and would like to set me straight,

by all means, send me an email.

What are the implications of this?

Is The Soul independent?

Is it above judgement?

Do we have to throw up our hands and declare

that no one has tamed The Unconscious.

It can’t be seen except by effect,

but can we say there are good and bad Souls?

The answer is; there are good Souls and bad,

and woe to men housing bad ones.

Body Beware! You are in grave peril

if you are housing a defective Soul.

Some Body is in for some knocks,

the rack, perhaps, and worse.

If you are mighty, it may happen to others;

if weak, to yourself: Does your body deserve it?

Probably not, but your mind does.

Your miserable, rotten, stupid mind

shares the blame, for it should have gotten

a grip on the thing and made it right,

made it lie down in green pastures

inside its own body, and be content 

to watch cows eat grass,

or sheep or goats, or whatever was present,

or nothing. Let the Body eat grass,

lie down, roll over, take a big mouthful,

chew it greenly, with green drool,

not being anyhow so defective,

acting the a-Soul, bad Soul.

What’s to be done with bad Souls?

Certainly not Capital Punishment.

Nor even prolonged incarceration,

unless there’s danger from Bodies.

I don’t know, maybe penal colonies,

some will be needed to deal with the worst,

the worst of our Souls, our-Souls, our-Souls…

I leave these matters to disciples.