Light and ShadowepymetheusSeptember 10 2008, 07:28:05 UTC
This is a really interesting topic, not in the least because it feels as though there's a right and a wrong answer and you're on the wrong side of it. I imagine Bizarro World Chris is writing a Live Journal about his (her?) inability to subsume his passion for more practical, worldly matters.
You don't suffer from a lack of passion, my expatriate friend. Your life is suffused with passion in a way that I envy. You are always bursting at the seams with ideas, intelligence and curiosity whenever I see you. You live your life in a very passionate way, even when you're doing something you don't like, for example managing gifts and donations from the bowels of an education industrial complex.
What I'm getting at is the definition of passion. Passion might be defined as a noun, something to be pursued because it consumes you; but it might also be defined as an adverb, a way of doing things, the way you do things, which is passionately. Look at the passionate way you rake yourself over the coals for your indecision. A passionless person wouldn't even bother.
Let me reframe for a moment. You do not lack motivation or passion, but are rather blessed with a frustrating balance of talent and common sense. You are the rare artist who keeps the bills paid and still feels inspired to do the art. You are smart enough to keep your passion from upsetting your life, but passionate enough to keep your common sense from stifling your creativity. That frustration you feel, that indecision, that's the friction of your halves continually meeting in the tectonic struggle for control. That friction is heat, energy, power, and I promise you that from that friction something will be born. That discomfort of those two halves coming together means you're doing it right, and boy does that suck.
I know you're struggling, and I will do anything in my power to help you. Most of all I want to keep reminding you to make space for the third road; to be open, breathe and ground over and over again until that third road appears. And maybe most of all to ease back on the throttle and let that overwhelming passion you possess cool a bit so you can give yourself a little break.
I love you. I respect you. You're doing well. Keep at it.
Re: Light and ShadowhowilearnedOctober 2 2008, 16:41:10 UTC
I'm a little tardy in saying this, but thanks for responding. Your words carry power. And I feel that you've nailed it. Thanks for the reflection.
I still think about your reading for me, and it informs the way I make choices. I'd like to tell you more about it at some point, and don't think I'll probably have the patience to write it in an email.
Hopefully we'll talk or e-chat soon. Can you Skype?
You don't suffer from a lack of passion, my expatriate friend. Your life is suffused with passion in a way that I envy. You are always bursting at the seams with ideas, intelligence and curiosity whenever I see you. You live your life in a very passionate way, even when you're doing something you don't like, for example managing gifts and donations from the bowels of an education industrial complex.
What I'm getting at is the definition of passion. Passion might be defined as a noun, something to be pursued because it consumes you; but it might also be defined as an adverb, a way of doing things, the way you do things, which is passionately. Look at the passionate way you rake yourself over the coals for your indecision. A passionless person wouldn't even bother.
Let me reframe for a moment. You do not lack motivation or passion, but are rather blessed with a frustrating balance of talent and common sense. You are the rare artist who keeps the bills paid and still feels inspired to do the art. You are smart enough to keep your passion from upsetting your life, but passionate enough to keep your common sense from stifling your creativity. That frustration you feel, that indecision, that's the friction of your halves continually meeting in the tectonic struggle for control. That friction is heat, energy, power, and I promise you that from that friction something will be born. That discomfort of those two halves coming together means you're doing it right, and boy does that suck.
I know you're struggling, and I will do anything in my power to help you. Most of all I want to keep reminding you to make space for the third road; to be open, breathe and ground over and over again until that third road appears. And maybe most of all to ease back on the throttle and let that overwhelming passion you possess cool a bit so you can give yourself a little break.
I love you. I respect you. You're doing well. Keep at it.
A.
Reply
I still think about your reading for me, and it informs the way I make choices. I'd like to tell you more about it at some point, and don't think I'll probably have the patience to write it in an email.
Hopefully we'll talk or e-chat soon. Can you Skype?
Reply
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