“Esprit de géométrie” and “Esprit de Finesse”
Spirit of geometry and Spirit of kindness
The expressions are French and they are of Blaise Pascal, a mathematical french genius, inventor of the calculating machine, philosopher, and more than anything that only geniuses are capable of. From Pascal, I only knew the phrase “the heart has reasons that reason itself does not know”, but the “spirit of geometry and the spirit of kindness” won me over.
Anyway, what would that be? As the name says, the spirit of geometry would be the mathematical reason, that of invariant elements, while the spirit of fineness or kindness represents cordial reason, the logic of the heart, according to Pascal. And the heart really has reasons that reason itself does not consider, the heart is a stranger to reason.
To put it another way, we could say that: spirit of kindness is forgiveness and spirit of geometry is hardness of heart. The medicine in the hospital is the spirit of geometry and the visit of those who pray for the sick person is the spirit of kindness. The spirit of geometry is the teacher who does not consider a different possibility in the student’s response, and the spirit of kindness is the teacher who rescues a lost student.
Spirit of kindness is understanding and the spirit of geometry is judgment. Spirit of kindness is compassion and spirit of geometry is indifference. Kindness of spirit is solidarity and the spirit of geometry is self-centeredness. Science would be geometry and spirituality would be kindness.
Pascal said that this contradiction is necessary for our life, and that, even both reasons, the exact, calculated, and the reason of the heart are essential. They fought, then marched together, and today they converge in diversity. It is not that the spirit of geometry is bad, it is an objective side that is also needed, it is necessary, but the humanity of today has never needed the spirit of kindness so much. Today, more than never, the spirit of kindness is urgent in this chaotic world we are inserted.
Well, to illustrate in a practical way: in the movie “The postman and the poet”, there is a scene in which the poet, a convinced atheist, enters a church to prepare for the baptism of his godson, son of the postman. Even though he is an atheist, the poet shows a touching spirit of kindness when he kneels and crosses himself in respect to the rite that teaches in this way.
And finally, one night ago, when calling my sister, already at night, I caught her on the way to the house of a neighbor, in the countryside. She told me she was taking a longer string for the sick puppy that needed to be trapped, and she was sorry to see that the little dog could not move around because the string on his neck was too short. A person who leaves the comfort of her home to give more relief to a sick puppy is another shining example of the spirit of kindness.
I don’t know if this quality of a person is a natural virtue, I mean, the person is born with this virtue or not. But I think that we can learn anything, especially kindness. That’s a treasure God may give to those who do not ask for honors or money, but only the condition of being able to get closer to Him in order to be a better person.
