fleet of both feet

No one solves this problem for me, shows me:

Which way leads to water, which to mud?

Fear fills my heart with blood; the road splits here

And I must choose: Which way will take me home?

#1460: From Rumi's Kolliyaat-e Shams-e Tabrizi

Key word: problem

Yesterday I discovered the small bird dead in its protective cage. It had finally succumbed to the injuries it incurred from our cat. In its small way it reminded us of the suffering in the world and of the cruelty of nature in the raw. I wasn't so sure we had really helped much. It may have been more merciful to let the cat finish it off rather than let it die "in peace" over a two day span. The cat continued to crouch at the aviary's edge, terrifying it still for it could not understand that it was safe. I think it died of fear in the end.

Yesterday I also read an interesting article by Shunya titled On Early Islam, which contains rich detail on some key figures like Omar Khayyam, Al-Farabi and Ibn Al-Arabi. The chapter on Sufism, The Mystic Tide, gave me some much needed background on the place of mysticism within Islam. It has been a much more popular and accessible current than I had thought and I can see strong similarities with pop music culture of today. The 25th anniversary of John Lennon's death (8dec80) was marked with loving reverence that closely resembles the way great saints are revered among mystic traditions, both Islamic and Hindu.

The mystic path is often contrasted with the rational. Mystics and rationalists tend to view each other with some disgust. Rumi is depicting that conflict here as one between clear water and cloudy mud. Both mystics and rationalists see their way as leading to clarity and the other as leading to confusion. Interestingly too, both rely on (perhaps even hope for) tragic events in the lives of their opponents so that s/he will see the limitations of the path chosen. I would not wholeheartedly classify Rumi as a mystic for its clear to me that he sees both ways. He understands that there is a problem here and, at least in this verse, he doesn't actually commit either way.

To my own mind, the fastest way home is to use both feet, one treading in the style of the rationalist (or pragmatist) and one treading in the style of the mystic (or the romantic idealist). There is plenty of evidence in Rumi's writings that he was fleet of both feet.