Life Conversations: Passion

Passion awakes like a storm and requires the gentle hand of reasoning to guide it - AB

By all definitions, I have grown as a passionate person towards my family, friends, and work. Popular culture dictates success is linked to passionate people. Pundits say finding and securing passion is the end goal of a purposeful life.

Reflecting on my life, one has to first ask the question...are all passions' good? Clearly not. Lying, cheating, lust, gluttony, greed, envy, the list can be long. So the first responsibility of us as citizens of the world is to understand the passion for good things versus bad.

Even when we do distinguish the good from bad, one has to ask a higher level question. What does 'passion' get me?

Passion (even about all the right things) ties us to measure success and failure against an objective. Passion may make us focused to the exclusion of others and ideas. Passion ties our emotions to the highs and the lows.

A life separated from passion does not mean low driven individuals with no goals. All it means is that passion can be exited from the citadel of self. Banish passion and you are independent of the discontentment. Live in agreement with nature.

A well-intentioned person is all that you need to be.