Passion

Passion is defined by dictionary.com as:

1.	any powerful or compelling emotion or feeling, as love or hate.

2.	strong amorous feeling or desire; love; ardor.

3.	strong sexual desire; lust.

4.	an instance or experience of strong love or sexual desire.

5.	a person toward whom one feels strong love or sexual desire.

6.	a strong or extravagant fondness, enthusiasm, or desire for anything: a passion for music.

7.	the object of such a fondness or desire: Accuracy became a passion with him.

8.	an outburst of strong emotion or feeling: He suddenly broke into a passion of bitter words.

9.	violent anger.

10.	the state of being acted upon or affected by something external, esp. something alien to one's nature or one's customary behavior (contrasted with action ).

11.	(often initial capital letter) Theology. a. the sufferings of Christ on the cross or His sufferings subsequent to the Last Supper. b. the narrative of Christ's sufferings as recorded in the Gospels.

12.	Archaic. the sufferings of a martyr.

I find it intensely interesting the varied usages of this word.  Built into the word passion is not just strong emotions, but anger (#9), a somewhat lack of self-control (#8), Jesus Christ's death (#11), suffering and death (#12), love (#2 & #7), lust (#3), and lack of agency or being subject to something else (#10).  The definitions cover such a large range of emotions.

Some thing that I find in common is passion is often associated with something strong or taken to the extreme.  Anger, lust, love, suffering...those are all extreme emotions or states of being.  Also, there is somewhat built into this definition a lack of self-control.  In definitions 10, 11, and 12, it is implied that passionate people are subject to the wills or desires of those things or people they are passionate about.  That is also somewhat inherent in the love, lust, and hate definitions.  

Passionate people are not totally in control of themselves because they are so invested in the object of their passion that such object thus gains power or control over the passionate.  

Although we don't like to think about passionate people being in a position of insubordination, its important to think about.  Jesus for instance was put into this position when He went to the cross to die for us.  He loved us so much that He allowed for that love and passion to lead him to suffering.  Jesus allowed the human government to have control over Him because of His passion for us.  Wow. 

But at the same time, lowly humans such as myself dislike being subject to our objects of passion.  We do not have the ability such as Jesus to choose to be put into insubordination, knowing that we could get out of it if we pleased.  It begins to feel like a sort of slavery to your passion, like you are stuck.  Also, to be passionate about something inherently demands risk.  You can't be passionate about something without risking yourself and putting yourself in the line of fire of someone.  Because no matter what you choose to be passionate about, there will always be someone who will be passionate about the opposite. 

I do believe that I am a passionate person, and this often gets me into trouble.  I dislike apathy so much, and I demand that others be passionate about something as well.  I have little patience for those who are apathetic, and this makes me a prideful, not very understand person.  I have a problem being compassionate, at times.  I do believe that the reasons I have listed are some of the big reasons why people aren't passionate.  It just takes more time and energy to care about something.  Its harder than not caring at all.  So, to that extent, I "understand" (at least I think so) why people are not passionate. 

But then I get frustrated.  Can't they see that there are so many things out there in the world that need saving?  If there were just a handful more passionate people in the world, then perhaps we could save some of them.

I have to apologize publicly for my Valentine's Day post a couple weeks ago.  That post was aimed at apathetic people, those who whine on Valentine's Day for their own self-pity.  It was not intended to stomp all over the hearts of those who have been through broken relationships or those who are missing someone.  Please understand that my passion often gets the best of me, and I lash out.  I apologize, and I hope that my few Internet readers will forgive me for some of the things I say that are insensitive.  I hope to try and be more universally understanding when I post in the future. 

Thank you.