I’ve had two separate people ask me (and a room full of other people) a pretty simple, straightforward question: “What are you passionate about?” The first was @thingles , and the second was Andrew Sims, from @DOOMTREE .
The questions itself is pretty simple. Everyone has a passion, right? Everyone has at least something that they care about. But it raises a good point, and as @thingles said (paraphrased), “it throws people off guard when you ask them that”.It got me thinking, what am I passionate about?
I know things that make me act passionately, things like social justice issues, gay marriage, religion, technological ethics, and I’m sure some other list of thigns that I’m not aware of. So, I act passionately about things, but is that really what passion is?
For instance, things like abortion rights, if I get started, I can come across to others as very passionate. While I think abortion rights are very important, I don’t do anything about it, except vote. While I think the environment is very, very important, I’m not a member of Greenpeace (or other organizations working to further environmentalism). So how do we define passion? Is it a belief? Is it acting on a belief?
If passion is acting on a belief, does having a belief but not acting on it make someone ambivalent, or lazy? And if just having a belief is passion, am I incredibly passionate about everything in my life?
At this point, the definition of passion is just semantics, and there’s an argument to be made that passion (as a belief) doesn’t unless you act on it, just as there’s an argument to be made that nothing matters unless it’s affecting something, and that a system of beliefs without action is useless, let alone passion. But I don’t want to go there.
So, the question remains unanswered, what am I passionate about? I’m a Computer Science and Spanish double major, is that my passion? No, probably not. I’ve known forever that I wanted to study computers, but that’s just becaue they make sense to me.
Does passion mean what “clicks” with you? Is passion manifested in music? Or is passion manifested in one’s significant other? How can passion be related to another human? Doesn’t that mean we’d be entirely dependent on the other?
I’m inclined to think passion is “what truly matters” to someone, something that someone would really, absolutely, have a difficult time living without. If that’s the case, passion becomes much more personal. I would say, if that’s the case, I’m not passionate about all the things listed above.
“What are you passionate about?” My answer, @thingles and @DOOMTREE , is that I’m passionate about humans, and I’m passionate about life. I’m passioante about the creation that comes out of being human, and I’m passionate about the interactions and lack thereof that every person goes through. I’m passionate about being, and about doing, and about being able to continue to be and do.
Tags: creativity, give it your all, introspection, random
My arrival at this is through German, but here’s the etymology for “passion” (via wiktionary.org):
“Via French, from Latin passio, suffering, noun of action from perfect passive participle passus, suffered, from deponent verb pati, suffer”
From my experience, something that you’re passionate about is something that pleases you and hurts you in relatively equal portions.
I guess that matches with Jacob’s assertion that he’s passionate about humans and life