Both ways

Can life be lived both ways? George Sand the writer observes: "On the one hand, the absolute annihilation of intellect and sentiment for the sake of personal salvation; on the other, the development of the mind and heart for the sake of a communal religion." She partially experienced this dilemma early into her adolescence. About the age of 14, she writes about an evening when "the fragrance of honeysuckle and jasmine drifted in on a cool breeze. Lost in the vastness of the night, a star twinkled in the window frame and seemed to watch me attentively. The birds sang. There was a stillness...a charm...a mystery...a gathering of spirit...that I never dreamed could be." She felt her "being begin to tremble, and a flickering like a white light passed," ... "I felt that I loved God, that my mind accepted fully this ideal of justice, tenderness and holiness which I have never doubted since then, but which until then had not touched me."

The hormonal, endocrinal and emotional changes occurring during childhood development account for much of the romanticism and fantasy of youth. George Sand was no exception. But when should illusions be shed? For too many adults they have never been lost. For too few adults, the processing of thought has never been found. To have it both ways, to fully become human and to balance the relationship between mind and heart - as George Sand eventually learned - one cannot be locked up in a world of perpetual illusion. Choices must be made; pain must be felt. The balance must be struck between truly human and truly divine.