The root of passion

You can’t get passion. You have or you don’t. It is a state, of course if you can have too much passion and then you’d need help.

Dear Robert, I particularly like your penultimate sentence, that: “When you really dig right into something, you’re just liable to fall in love.” Feeling passionate as an artist is for me the fruit of persistence. This has been true of landscape painting especially for me over recent years . Visiting and re-visiting familiar places through different seasons and times of day and approaching each from a variety of directions, viewing juxtaposed forms in a new way each time – these are essential to how I study the coastal landscape of Cornwall in the UK. I’ve certainly fallen head over heels in love with this area after more than thirty years here. I’m passionate about it and that makes me yearn to paint it again and again. Thanks for all your enjoyable letters, Tom.

This post made me go back and realize where my passion for animal welfare comes from. As a young child, probably about 8 yrs old we were staying at a small beach motel in Baja CA (when it was still barely known) and my parents bought a live lobster from a beach vendor. When they put it in the boiling pot to cook it, it screamed. That changed everything for me.

Passion is doing something you enjoy, whenever possible even if it’s for no money or reward of any kind!

Passion is an inner fire. It is a burning desire to pursue your art. It is an inner drive that makes you get up in the morning and go straight to your studio to work. It is almost akin to an obsession. You love what you do more than anything else in the world.

For me it was my own WONDER as a very small child that I could get SO caught up in drawing and other people thought to ask me to draw for them. Its probably why I am also passionate to encourage children who attend my studio

You have outdone yourself this time, Robert. I smiled all the way through and your enchanting description was like a video as I looked around SJ’s humble home. Woody Allen’s brother was the PERFECT ENDING chuckle. I think I will smile all day today, just thinking about that wonderful story of true PASSION! My passion is DOGS and I hope to have time to paint a thousand of them because I LOVE their little personalities, and believe they should be elevated to a status ABOVE just PET – since they are so much more to so many people, and a God-send to me! Love your letters, Robert. You are so gifted in so many ways!!! THANK YOU for sharing your thoughts!

Yes, “step on eggs”, and care that you did. jeri

When reading the story about Mr. Darcus, my reaction was ‘all those poor birds who had their nests and eggs stolen’. I must be a bit crazy, but I felt real compassion for the birds.

How is stealing eggs and whole nests from 40,000 birds, even some that were “rare in the area,” any sort of atonement for accidentally stepping on eggs? IMO that’s not passion at all, it’s a rather sick obsession. Since he ‘blew the eggs out’ it is clear he was taking potentially viable eggs. From what I know of some countries’ laws, destroying nests, eggs, of native birds can also be illegal, for good reason. I usually enjoy your posts but not this one!

Passion for something can be both a blessing and a curse. All else takes a back seat. It is the spice of life, and excelling in the endeavor re-affirms your unique personhood.

You are definitely on to something here. My father was the “speed bump” in my life, and he drove me to go in another direction than he. I had to have passion in one way because he had it in another. Talk about contrarian. Now that he is gone I realize I trumped up the bump more than I should have, and I regret it, but I’m still passionate. Thanks for everything.

I thank you over and over for your interesting, informative writings. I love them, read them all and get such enjoyment out of them. I thank you from the bottom of my heart you make my life so much richer in every way.

I have been following Genn’s letters from a long time I love this one. He hit the nail on its head this time. Yes I paint no matter what. I have not held a show or displayed any of my work in a long time but i just sit down and do it every day no matter what. I guess I have a passion for it. Love you Genn, please keep going.

I’ve never responded to any of your newsletters before, but Passion is something that is of great interest to me. I feel that I have NO passion, especially the kind that involves other human beings. The only human emotion that I regularly experience is guilt. I do have sympathy for others, but not deep seated passion. When I tell people how I feel about myself they say “but you show so much passion in your paintings!” Actually I don’t feel all that passionate but it is the only thing that comes close in that I have a great need to paint and get satisfaction and comfort from painting. I feel that I will never be a really great artist because I lack this passion. I never had any traumas growing up. My family is pretty non-affectionate. I can paint landscapes because I do have a love of nature. Not so good with portraits.

When I was a small kid, I was sometimes not allowed to go outside. I don’t remember why any more, maybe I didn’t eat my breakfast or maybe there wasn’t anyone to watch me. I remember with clarity the terrible longing to go outside in the sunshine and see and do all the wonderful things that were waiting there. Then I would be given a pen and paper and dive into my internal world and draw and draw. All our books had my drawings on all empty pages, illustrating a world of my own made up stories and games. I agree that the fire in the belly gets directed in childhood, but where does it originally come from? I knew people very close to me who would rather sit with a cigarette and coffee and daydream than do anything else.

Your egg gathering gentleman has crossed over from passion into obsession. There is a line and I think not being able to afford butter was his.

My passion was and continues to be the alphabet. I know a lot of calligraphers who also developed a passion as soon as they learned the alphabet. And few of them were traumatized by the alphabet. We just like the activity of making letters and words. Some of us are happy with just individual letters. I’m sure others will speak up about passions that simply showed up in very pleasing ways. And I am sure we will all agree that it is sad to see people who never discovered a passion.

Passion is like watching a monkey with a coconut, he doesn’t know what it is but he wants to look inside it, no matter what.

I like the way you think. Passion is fuel for life. My friend Kim Bright is the “Canadian Grannie defies Winter” she is passionate about laughter. Love seeing your paintings at Mayberry Fine Arts when we have a chance to visit in Winnipeg.

I love this story about Mr. Darcus, and I’m glad you got to spend some time with him, too.

I too have often pondered why do we artists relentlessly pursue our muse for better or worse. With me, it started at a very early age. It was my escape hatch from family anger, illness, and deaths. When I drew pictures, I was in a happy world where I could dream and fantasize. Being a loner wasn’t easy but I spent many hours paddling, swimming, walking the dogs and dreaming. I still do dream in my “young” old age and am now better equipped to translate these happy moments into art.

The Passion of Art I am drawn with caresses To a palm’s esoteric existence Whose fingers motion With magnetic insistence To dispel all defenses To cease resistance To enter a respite Far from this unanswerable dissidence. I take leave of this world absurd And await the amulet’s sweet word And the word is a hand opening a door Upon a land of what once shimmered before Before I breathed a breath Or knew a thought of death. Here then unfold the hills of pure truth Bathed by streams of beauty and love Shone upon by the moon and sun above. While below run the bear and fly the dove. Here then to bring birth to the passion of art Is to fully understand from the heart.

I enjoy your column and often learn or agree, but this childhood trauma explaining passion is an utter simplification. Some people are born with the capacity for passion, then nature or nurture takes over and it is activated, discovered or inspired. If the capacity isn’t innate, no amount of trauma will bring it to the fore. Furthermore, while trauma may be one source of activation there are many other ways people discover their passion. Passion is born in an individual, but what comes after is ‘made.’

As I read about your visit to S.J. Darcus’ home, I kept wondering why someone who was so poor and loved bird’s eggs, didn’t own at least a few chickens? Then he could have collected fresh eggs each day to add some cheap protein to his diet. Perhaps he was too busy seeking that next rare, hard to find jewel of an egg, to bother doing something logical and ordinary. That is a mark of someone who has passion. Other non-essential activities or concerns tend to fall by the way side. Your comment about getting to work is the best way to find what you are really passionate about. Get off of the couch and out of your comfort zone. If you try one thing and that doesn’t ring your bell, try something else. There is a whole world of different experiences just waiting to tried! So go and get to work!!

Somewhere, as a young person, I heard the warning…or perhaps the Direction.. “To commit sex is to risk love'” The unintended message I took from that saying was to “Do The Thing…whatever That might be”. It is the surest way to find your heart’s desire. But also, watch out. As every passion has a sharp side.

Good one and yes it is very elusive and I believe it can happen to you at any age. Like a bomb, it tears you apart and you suffer because of it. Then, later as you put the pieces back not necessarily in the same places, the creativity you have changes and takes on new meaning

Kathy Hill, you do have passion exactly the same as most of us. You were raised not to express it or admit it to yourself. You will be ok.

There’s a big difference between passion and obsession. The egg thief stole the futures of generations of wild birds to (and I don’t get how this fits) “atone” for stepping on an egg once. A story of pathos and hoarding, not passion. Passion would have been to find a way to protect the birds, not steal their nests and eggs to a disturbing degree. 99 times out a 100, I appreciate and am inspired by Robert’s letters. This one, however, missed the mark and left me feeling very sad.

Passion is being possessed by what ever entrances.

Children will naturally gravitate towards the things that most interest them- though in our cultural past we adults did a bang-up job trying to squash many of those interests as not being viable from a money-making standpoint. So- many children grow up only to find themselves depressed because they followed somebody else’s assumptions about what they should do, instead of their own understanding. If we can remember what we were interested in as children- we can find our way back to what really matters to us. And a passion for living and creating is centered in our own self-knowing. To find it you look within- not without. Unless you don’t know how to do that- very common in our ordinary reality. Passion is a tremendous energy for BEING- but the flip side is anger- and the only real difference is in how it gets expressed. Yet the opposite word is compassion- a deep empathic sense for the complexities/difficulties of existence. There are individuals- however- who have no passion for anything because they’ve been taught to repress feelings in general. Oh well. Passionate people can be disruptive. And any good artist is usually somewhat obsessed with all aspects of creation. So obsession isn’t necessarily a bad thing either.

With his severely modest lifestyle and diet, Darcus saved many animals and plants from destruction. Any average person affects nature much, much worse just by buying new clothes, appliances and food than what this poor guy did stealing birds eggs. At least he left something for education of future generations. Most of us just leave mountains of junk. I am glad that Darcus had such a happy life. I’ll think of him every time I eat an egg.

Passion is built into all of us from the start. Passion is an active state of wondering expectancy. The baby in a bassinet staring at a colorful mobile suspended overhead illustrates this phenomenon. This fascination with a simple stimulus will remain and possibly grow into the joy of creative expression – if it is not plucked and transplanted into sterile soil. The child who experiences the exuberance of finger-paints too often has an opposite experience when handed a set of crayons. “Stay within the lines of your coloring book” is advice that blunts the creative joy of many a youngster before he can muster a defense. Instead of joy, the fear of “doing it wrong” and earning displeasure replaces it. That dread of “doing it wrong” – if allowed to immobilize – eventually translates into feelings of inadequacy and frustration, and if not addressed can fester and become a kaleidoscope neuroses. Witness our penal institutions, overflowing with the results of dammed-up creativity seeking relief in irrational ways. A major part of the blame is in the lap of our systems of education where the creative aspect of mankind is viewed as a luxury rather than a vital necessity. Creativity is what makes us most like the divine Creator. It is how we are designed and how we are expected to live – creatively, inventively, beautifully, gracefully and with joy. Instead of asking what the source of passion is, we might do better to ask what we are doing to turn it into listless indifference. Rather than thinking of children as empty vessels that need to be filled, successful teaching should be seeing children as seeds needing the right nourishment and environment to allow their natural, healthy selves to mature into glorious individuality – and PASSION. Apologies for the seeming fervor. Amen!

Hello Robert—I’m afraid your example of “passion” falls way short. Maybe the example of your oologist friend fits the Canadian temperament, but my simple desk dictionary lists “powerful feeling, love, sexual desire: lust’ and “anger ; rage”, along with “great enthusiasm”. Clearly, “passion” has more to do with powerful emotions than with intellectual pursuits such as egg collecting. I hope you’ll try again. San Miguel de Allende, Mexico.

Passion is that thing that so overrides reason we cannot lay it aside regardless of the forces that would kill it.

I really believe that love is the ultimate truth, and that passion is rooted in love’s search for itself. It lights us up. Enthusiasm is a little different, maybe not as involving. Obsession is where our pursuits become so enmeshed in trauma, or are used to mask trauma, that they make us ill. If passion is rooted in love, then trauma can be the hand that guides the trowel; but so can the joy of discovery. So, where one person creates to find catharsis from pain, another creates to help the roots carry nourishment to the fruit.

passion seems to be in flux, a love/ hate relationship with what we feel passion for….It could possibly be the dropping of the eggs that sends us to not having it for that brief moment……and brief it is….as we re-centre where our LOVE of what we do….Passion emerges….and at last ….that feeling of Passionate contentment….;)

One thing I really love about Google adsense is that it picks up some ridiculous gists from these letters. I’m getting ads for pest control and how to get bird’s nest out of your gutters!

Passion – Yes, you either have it or you don’t. I believe you’re born ” that way” or not. I’ve always been passionate about art and nature. People who have no passion don’t get it, but they know those with passion dwell in a different realm. They wish they did, too, even though they don’t get it. Passion is a gift. Live it, but don’t make yourself too precious. People really don’t want to hear about other’s deep childhood traumas, personal tragedies, and so on. Make art. Your story will be in there and sensitive people will get it.

Agree with last comment from Harold…the video and the song made my day as I reflect on my art, my passion, and my appreciation this day of celebrating 37 years of marriage to a man who genuinely supports my artistic passion and endeavors. Got a love those endangered species.

We all develop true passion (not infatuation) only as we mature. Developing passion stems from gaining empathy and understanding about others and learning to appreciate life and all it offers. Passion develops when we open up to situations and allow ourselves to be encompassed; when we are willing to give of ourselves. When we are young our developing passion is scattered, misdirected. More intense interest than true passion. In our youth we are passionate about everything. Only when we mature and focus on something we find special, interesting that passion becomes more directed; more focused; more heartfelt. We can express passion for many things in life. As we become engrossed about things our passion becomes more deeply felt as we engage in interesting activities, or meet interesting people. Passion, either natural or inherited, has to do with having an insatiable curiosity about how things are made; how things were put together or who we are. We tend to narrow the meaning of passion to things romantic but passion encompassed much more. Passion wanders and takes hold when we find an intense interest in a subject or person. Having passion is having an intense desire to achieve excellence. Finding out all there is to know about something and never being satisfied with the results. Always searching- keeping our “flame of passion” burning.

Passion is a gift -if you are one of the lucky ones to experience it.

A great topic to share with this community of assorted expressions of passion. I find that passion for art creating, passion for life in any expression is a willingness to dive into that place of self, that sacred place in the deep center where there flows a willingness to release. Love, spirit, vision, intellect, compassion, desire, connection and fearlessness all blend together releasing self. What brings us here, be it trauma, obsession, joy, safety…when it becomes a necessity…..if passion being expressed. For me, the access is sometimes resisted…by distraction or fear….but I am always making it the place that I want to fall into. Thank-you for sharing.

I look forward to your letters, Robert. Your “little lessons of life” are always so capably written. I particularly enjoyed this letter, and as I read it, I knew I had to “break a few eggs” ! I do know that family,friends.commitments etc. often take precedence. Somewhere in all of life’s busy schedule, I must make more time for painting. Thank you for your ongoing insights and your delightful sense of humour.