I was a big Buffy the Vampire Slayer in the 90s and early 2000s. I was a Uni student and looked forward to my Monday evening Buffy episodes. One of my favourite episodes was Passion - the two part episode from series two.
The monologue from Angel discussing how passion leads us is something that has stuck in my mind over the years. If you take away the dark and melancholic undertones, it almost has a good message.
"Passion…it lies in all of us. Sleeping. Waiting. And though unwanted, unbidden…It will stir…Open its jaws and howl. It speaks to us, guides us. Passion rules us all and we obey. What other choice do we have? Passion is the source of our finest moments. The joy of love…the clarity of hatred…and the ecstasy of grief. It hurts sometimes more than we can bear. If we could live without passion, maybe we’d know some kind of peace. But we would be hollow. Empty rooms: shuttered and dank. Without passion…we’d be truly dead."
I agree with quite a few points in the monologue - that passion is the source of our finest moments, and a life without passion is a life not lived to its fullest. I'm not sure that without passion that there would be more peace. I know that passion and peace can reside beside each other.
I have been a seeker of my passion for much of my life. Probably a serial compulsive obsessive may be the best way to describe me. I'll find a challenge, or passion, and throw myself in deep. Like when I started cycling, I challenged myself to a 700km ride. When I started gardening, I started sowing heirloom seeds and trying to harvest seeds for the next generation. When I started guitar, I would practice for 3 hours a day. When I was singing, I was in 2 choirs, and a musical... you get the idea.
I have underlying passions - like men's health, equality, social justice, fitness; but these passions reveal themselves to varying degrees in whichever activity I am invested in at that point in time. Currently I'm hoping to complete my first marathon; and creating a new park run for the local community in my neighbourhood.
So - I'm interested to hear what drives your passions? And how to you invest yourself in them?