One Foot in Front of the Other

What do you do with passion?

I mean, what if you are an intensely passionate person? No, not just some lusty, physical thing… but an intense, irrational, fundamental personality trait. What can you do with this?

You might say it is akin to the old prophet who was given the Lord’s message. He confessed that if he did not speak it, it threatened to consume him; like venting a flame which could become explosive if contained. This is what it feels like to have such passions, the need to reign it all in, but to risk immolation of it is suppressed too much.

The reasons for reigning it all in vary, some are noble, some are mundane. It may be a matter of keeping your job, not offending people, honoring a vow, keeping your sanity, being a productive member of society, maintaining your integrity, honoring cultural norms, or whatever. But in each case, the expression of this deep passion must be controlled or re-focused into something positive and productive. It must be funneled and fashioned like some kind of raw material.

But how do you do this? Another way of saying it is, how do we do this without falling into madness, as many of the great artists and musicians have fallen? How do you keep such transcendent urges bound within reality? How does one reconcile the vastness of one’s vision and the smallness of reality? How does one wrestle with something that defies measure and, in fact, is a compulsion? How does a person deal with all of the mundane isues of life, stay interested and engaged, when there is so much more…. careening through your mind?

For me, I don’t think that I have this answer yet………… not by a long shot.

So, this is one of those times where I am happy to receive feedback. Remember that this blog is about being real, and really, this is one of those things that I am trying to figure out…. How do we transcend the day to day? How do we functionally put one foot in front of the other in our journey to the eternal, when the present is so… constricting?

And as I come to some conclusions, I will be happy to share them with you...