Forget safety

For my Friend who is leaving soon:

There are many guises for intelligence.
One part of you is gliding in a high windstream,
while your more ordinary notions
take little steps and peck at the ground.

Conventional knowledge is death
to our souls, and it is not really ours.

It's laid on. Yet we keep saying
that we find "rest" in these "beliefs".

We must become ignorant
of what we've been taught,
and be, instead, bewildered.

Run from what's profitable and comfortable.
If you drink those liqueurs, you'll spill
the springwater of your real life.

Distrust anyone who praises you.
Give your investment money,
and the interest on the capital,
to those who are actually destitute.

Forget safety.
Live where you fear to live.
Destroy your reputation.
Be notorious.

I have tried prudent planning
long enough. From now
on, I'll be mad.

Rumi : Part of A Spider Playing in the House