The dual nature of genius

In a previous post, I talked about how we might think of genius as a guiding spirit. In another, I described it as a creative power. Here, I discuss how both can be true, how genius has a dual nature.

For the past few centuries, physicists have been perplexed by the apparent dual nature of light. In some scenarios, light behaves as a particle. In other cases, light behaves as a wave. It’s as if light is both a particle and a wave at the very same time.

Genius might be thought of as having such a dual nature. We can certainly come to know it as a creative power that gives shape and color to our unique selves. In this sense, it is an essential part of us, perhaps actually the essential part of our separate selves.

But, just as the Romans and Greeks conceived of it, genius might also be thought of as a guiding spirit beyond our separate selves, an outside force calling us to action, a divine muse pulling us toward ourselves or toward whatever the universe wants to bring into being through us. It is not us per se. It is the voice of the universe or the beyond echoing through us. We don’t inhabit it so much as we learn to hear, trust, and follow it. Sometimes it calls us to something about which we are immediately excited, which feels like us. But sometimes it reveals a possibility that terrifies or confounds us, calling us into a new version of ourselves or an endeavor that we did not anticipate or bargain for, stretching us to our very limit.

Like with our passions and talents, at times, we hold genius purely as our creative power. For example, sometimes the best self-coaching question might be something like: What would it mean for me to be truly authentic to my unique voice right now? In others, though, we might hold genius solely as our guiding spirit. If the creative power perspective doesn’t seem to catalyze clarity and inspiration, another equally valid question in that same scenario might be: What is the universe calling me to right now? What is life asking of me?

In a single moment, one of those questions might unlock more insight than the other. But over the course of our lives, most of us will find it helpful to switch between the two frames to truly understand our genius and find our right path through the dark.

My best guess is that someday, whether in our lifetimes or not, scientists will find an explanation that brings clarity and harmony to the apparent paradox of how light behaves. It will no longer seem like a mystery or contradiction, but rather something that makes sense and fits cleanly with our broader understanding of the universe.

In the same vein, I like to believe that the dual nature of genius is not so confusing or mysterious as it might appear. The universe and our deepest separate selves negotiate and conspire together. Harnessing our creative power and following our guiding spirit are, in a sense, one and the same. We can do both at the same time without dissonance. We can see through the duality of our thinking and realize these two frames are actually asking the same thing, just from different angles or lenses.

And when we do so, perhaps a new kind of zone of genius emerges. We can both fully claim our unique essence and see through the illusion of our separate selves. We can both exercise our own free will and surrender to the will of the universe within us. The dual nature of genius becomes not a paradox for our minds to wrap themselves around, but a new insight into who we are and what we are here to do.