Last week, I was going to sit down and write about passion. Then life happened and the idea floated in the limbo that is the back of my mind. Now, as I start to resurface into Eve, I see that the world is again on fire for the sake of watching itself burn.
I find it weird but I'm going to let it go by as I see myself not interested in involvement. It did remind me of my earlier thoughts and kicked the topic back out of limbo.
Passion is nether good nor bad. It is an intensity. What we are passionate about may be good, bad, or neutral. I consider my passion for the color blue to be neutral. I consider my passion for sweet drinks to be bad. My passion for my dogs is good.
Passion is not a casual feeling. Passion is not love. It is not hate. Passion amplifies these things. I greatly enjoy my favorite restaurant but I am not passionate about it. It grabs us and acts almost as if it is a propellant for our emotions. That's what makes it so dangerous.
The intensity of our passion is where it can move outside of the realm of positive influence and into negativity. I am passionate about Eve. It motivates me most of the time. Sometimes, it gets repressed, but the deeper energy of the emotion tends to burn off the negative energy given time. To harness that passion is to give myself the energy I need to do the things I do. That may be working through a complex situation, creating, playing, recovering, or any number of things. It may be my writing, or a drawing, or entering the Pod and Planet fiction contest.
It is a type of energy must be directed. Undirected, it can create, power, or destroy. It is something that we have to take responsibility for. It is ours, after all. As are the things we do with it.
What it is not, is an excuse. How many times have I seen behavior excused by, "They are passionate about it." It is not restricted to Eve. I've been reading dog forums again, preparing myself for a puppy. I've not had one in six years. And, as I read, I'm reminded why I stepped back from the animal world. So much negativity is excused by the passion of the author. "I didn't mean to come across so nasty but I get so worked up when someone does ... with their/to their dog..." they will apologize time and time again. If they apologize.
The same happens in Eve. Vicious and foul behavior is excused away as passion. "He is just passionate about it," I have read dozens of times. "Don't take it the wrong way."
It has often been a question of mine when it comes to excusing peoples behavior. It rarely seems to be, "I should step back and remember that I am talking to another person or to a public forum and my words and usage of language can cast an imagine or representation that I do not want." It more often seems to be, "You should excuse that person's behavior, word usage, image, and representation because they are passionate about the topic."
Perhaps, spending some time with other communities reminds me of how wide spread this is. But passion is not an excuse. Passion is not a right to treat others in whatever manner you may wish.
Someone can be passionate and not treat other peoples like shit in the process. Passion does not have to be loud, rude, crude, and edgy. It can be calm, polite, and clean in its intensity. Passion is not about volume and last words. It is about the energy that motivates and propels us. It is a raw, primitive, powerful emotion that can consume us.
We are responsible for what we do and what we say with that passion.
It is not an excuse.
It is a type of energy must be directed. Undirected, it can create, power, or destroy. It is something that we have to take responsibility for. It is ours, after all. As are the things we do with it.
What it is not, is an excuse. How many times have I seen behavior excused by, "They are passionate about it." It is not restricted to Eve. I've been reading dog forums again, preparing myself for a puppy. I've not had one in six years. And, as I read, I'm reminded why I stepped back from the animal world. So much negativity is excused by the passion of the author. "I didn't mean to come across so nasty but I get so worked up when someone does ... with their/to their dog..." they will apologize time and time again. If they apologize.
The same happens in Eve. Vicious and foul behavior is excused away as passion. "He is just passionate about it," I have read dozens of times. "Don't take it the wrong way."
It has often been a question of mine when it comes to excusing peoples behavior. It rarely seems to be, "I should step back and remember that I am talking to another person or to a public forum and my words and usage of language can cast an imagine or representation that I do not want." It more often seems to be, "You should excuse that person's behavior, word usage, image, and representation because they are passionate about the topic."
Perhaps, spending some time with other communities reminds me of how wide spread this is. But passion is not an excuse. Passion is not a right to treat others in whatever manner you may wish.
Someone can be passionate and not treat other peoples like shit in the process. Passion does not have to be loud, rude, crude, and edgy. It can be calm, polite, and clean in its intensity. Passion is not about volume and last words. It is about the energy that motivates and propels us. It is a raw, primitive, powerful emotion that can consume us.
We are responsible for what we do and what we say with that passion.
It is not an excuse.
re: Pod and Planet, I want to express my profound thanks to you Sugar being a key inspiration to enter the contest.
ReplyDeleteWell said. Enough cop outs.
ReplyDeleteTo be honest it boils down to human nature. Most people either don't want to admit or come to the realisation that they are being a bit of a turd. So it's because they feel so strongly, they can't help themselves.
I feel that you generally also don't feel so badly attacking an 'enemy'.
I'm an oranges kind of guy so anyone that likes apples deserves my verbal spray, they had it coming for being into Red Delicious.
My behaviour is justified. Oranges are my passion.
:)
Artuc Archaise
Very nicely put Sugar.
ReplyDelete‘Passion’ has multiple senses, two of which are “an intense desire or enthusiasm for something” and “strong and barely controllable emotion”. I’ve often observed both myself and a whole lot of other people cleverly switching back and forth between the two senses when it suits my/there desire to deliver an insincere apology. That is to say, apologies that begin well enough ‘Unchecked enthusiasm carried me much further than suitable’ but then switch senses to talk about ‘well-nigh uncontrollable emotions.’ What the hell? If we’re talking ‘uncontrollable’ emotions in the second sense then ‘unchecked’ was a mischaracterization of the situation since what happened was not merely ‘unchecked’ but rather ‘uncheckable’.
ReplyDeleteWhat most aggravates me about the commonness of the technique is not the insincere desire to garner forgiveness with no intention of changing future behavior (a very common desire) but rather that now, when I deliver sincere apologies with full intention of acting better in the future, people get terribly uncomfortable. Insincerity is so much the norm, we’re rarely allowed to speak sincerely anymore. This cannot be good.
This.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteCivility takes effort. Passion without control is easy; that's why so many people do it. A respectable adversary channels his energy much more productively. :)