Yes, in my three part personal musing on this, love is our final chapter.  I can think of no more difficult of a topic.

Love is easily one of the most complicated, abused, misunderstood and important concepts in our society.

I thought to define it, but which definitions?  The 5 common Greek definitions?  The many Hebrew?  The hundreds of English usages?

Seriously, there are so many ways to turn it is a daunting task.

So instead I will focus on one word or connotation:  Passion.

In a movie I like, this quote is used:

You know the Greeks didn’t write obituaries, they only asked one question after a man died, ‘Did he have passion?’

Now Passion, like Love, is also a simple concept that is incredibly complex.

I found this observation that seems pertinent:

Although the movie Serendipity uses the pursuit of a relationship as the ‘passion’ that focuses a life, people can become passionate about many things. All great accomplishments begin with the passionate commitment of an individual to make something better.

Passion is not well understood in our culture. People assume that passion will come to them like a flash flood, overwhelming them with a sense of vitality and commitment to purpose. In truth, passion develops slowly and purposefully. You feel it most when you take time to breathe and consider the unique life activities that have meaning to you. Passion does not seek you out, rather you discover personal passions via a proactive pursuit of things interesting.

I like that.  Passion seems to be, in the terms of my three blogs, the final chapter.  Hope is the goal.  Faith is the path.

But Passion is the force that drives us.  Passion is what gives us the strength to reach our goal.

Oh sure, passion is scary and can be dangerous.  But passion is still a necessary element.  As the observation above concludes:

In our culture, we traditionally admire people who rise to the top of their profession. However, perhaps the Greeks were closer to the truth when they focused on respecting the cultivation of personal passion. Accomplishment is empty if you reach a goal on technical skills alone. Hollow praise does not provide a sense of vitality. Real fulfillment occurs only where there is passionate commitment to something personally meaningful. Unlike Jonathan, fulfillment is something I would never leave to chance. Find a personal passion and pursue it. 

And just as faith is coupled with trust, so is passion coupled with commitment.

Without passion man is a mere latent force and possibility, like the flint which awaits the shock of the iron before it can give forth its spark.  ~Amiel, Journal, 17 December 1856

Passion is everywhere.  Patriotism, for example, is passion for our Country and what it stands for.  I admire that passion.

But just as in the other elements, abuse is found here.  How far apart is passion from obsession?  How often do we see that mistaken in society?

I guess my point is that we need passion, but that is no excuse for reason.  In fact in ever aspect of these blogs we seem to come back to that.  Hope is powerful, but must be realistic.  Faith is essential but must be applied sensibly and realistically.

And so does passion require common sense and realism.  Our passion cannot override our sense or even our values.

If passion drives you, let reason hold the reins.  ~Benjamin Franklin

It is with our passions as it is with fire and water; they are good servants, but bad masters.  ~Roger L’Estrange, Aesop’s Fables, 1692

Passion and prejudice govern the world, only under the name of reason.  ~John Wesley

Passion, though a bad regulator, is a powerful spring.  ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Our passion is our greatest strength and yet can be our greatest dangerous.  Can you not tell me that the Passion of the liberals for Obama is a passion given over to a lack of reason in its demigod treatment?

While I dislike the passion of environmentalists (as it often leaves reason and sense far behind) there is no doubt that their quest is a passionate one.

Conservatives have lost some of that passion.  Conservative values used to drive passion.  Reagan had it.   He had a passion for freedom.  I believe Bush had a similar passion, but he did not have Reagan’s sense and reason.

Clinton had passion, though his was for power, as is his wife’s.  Carter had passion for peace, despite the cost.

Obama…he has passion.  Passion for entitlement.  Passion to make the Government stronger and more essential in people’s lives.  Dangerous passions.

Yet…how can I necessarily discern whether his passion for socialism is necessarily better than my passion for free market and democracy. 

So in closing, in my mind this final quote is the proper application:

Don’t ask yourself what the world needs; ask yourself what makes you come alive.  And then go and do that. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.  ~Harold Whitman

That’s how I see life.  I am tired of useless goals.  I am tired of hollow commitments.  I am of an age, so the experts say, when I am given to reevaluating my life and my dreams.  I am seeking purpose.

And isn’t that what this has been about?  Hope and dreams need us to keep the faith with ourselves and others to realize them, and passion drives us forward.  We all need purpose.

Passion helps us define our dreams and goals.  Why make a goal that has no value?   Will you pursue that which has no passion in you?

No.

I am passionate about writing, about photography, about music and about my friends and family.  These things are real, and make me feel alive. 

I will pursue those passions.  I will share with them my dreams and my hopes, and I will keep faith with them and keep their faith, and I will live, and live with passion and purpose. 

If there is no passion in your life, then have you really lived? Find your passion, whatever it may be. Become it, and let it become you and you will find great things happen FOR you, TO you and BECAUSE of you. ~T. Alan Armstrong

Passion and purpose go hand in hand. When you discover your purpose, you will normally find it’s something you’re tremendously passionate about. ~Steve Pavlina

May you also find your passions with reason and purpose, and may they consume you.