The desire to know another’s soul will end all other desires.

The first poem in A Boy’s Will, Robert Frost writes “Into My Own.”

With putting an array of powerful words together, he turns a forest of dark trees into an escape he alludes to as paradise.

This place is where he can be alone, longing to find himself, knowing that once he does find himself amidst the pines, he will never return back.

Whilst this is an extreme form of isolation, albeit Frost may consider this a vacation, it’s message feels cathartic.

It’s an extreme form of camping; most people like camping.

Our jobs and responsibilities and bills and family and Netflix and concerts and bar hopping and skateboarding and such is what pulls us away from the forest and back into reality.

The Persian poet, Rumi, has been attributed with saying:

“The desire to know your own soul will end all other desires.”

This seems possible in Frost’s poem.

To chuck your phone in a river, build a hut, hunt for food, make a fire and, slowly but surely, learn to know your own soul.

Hold on: so what the hell am I getting at here?

On one hand I agree with Frost and Rumi.

On the other hand, I strongly disagree, with that hand saying, “to isolate, to be left alone, what’s the point?”

Here’s why…

Rory Sutherland said the opposite of a good idea can be a good idea.

I’ve tweaked his theory: the reverse of an idea—not doing the opposite, but going in the reverse direction—can also be a good idea.

To explain this, let’s use the Rumi quote.

The opposite would be:

“The desire to not know your own soul will continue all other desires.”

While this eerily and almost dystopian-like quote makes sense, this isn’t the reverse of the original quote.

The reverse would be something like this:

“The desire to know another’s soul will end all other desires.”

How could you do this in isolation?

You can’t.

Repurposing Rumi’s quote in this way feels like the only true way to live.

That we all need family, community and a sense of belonging.

And the only way to do this is to pivot from being selfish to being selfless.

And by being selfless, you become the better version of yourself that went from wanting and having to giving and sharing.

What if in order to find yourself, you take genuine interest in what others care for and are passionate about?

What if, with this newfound curiosity, you become, in a way, more human, more connected?

And what if with this new connectedness, you end the desire to escape and seek out useless shit and somehow make it easier to know your own soul, finding the things that interest you?

— George