Passion.
I used to say that I’d marry the first woman who threw a plate at me. I remember first thinking this as a college freshman. It was at a talent show of sorts and a woman (who looked like a young Nicole Kidman) took the stage, sat down on a stool and sang Blue Bayou. I had never heard the song before. Leaning forward in my seat, I watched as she closed her eyes and sang about the silver moon and the evening tide. She crooned. It was evocative. Her voice was smoother than oil and I was convinced her lips must smell like peaches. She had perfectly translated something into a language I understood. It was her sincere passion.
Years later, I now have the perspective to realize that it is this passion that carved its initials onto the truck of my memory. I am still fascinated by and attracted to people who wear their passions on their sleeve. It is their undercurrent. A color that settles like dust on everything they see, both invisible and blinding.
I love observing the every day and finding a way to capture it its absurdity in a way that makes someone either laugh or think. People fascinate me. And passionate people… passionate people are the most exciting because of the challenge they bring to translate their passion into the words of my own. My clearest memories, the initials carved most deeply, are by those passionate people.
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Just a random attorney writing about daily life with Little Filthy, my rotten dog.
May 6th, 2008 at 12:50 am
I think being a passionate person must be exhausting… and one tends to come off as slightly self obsessed sometimes.
People either love you for it, or you make them crazy. However the truly passionate don’t realize it.
I’ve found that the most exciting people to be around are those who have a passion I’m not knowledgeable about. It’s something awe inspiring to hear them talk about it, or watch them do it. You learn so much about someone this way.
May 6th, 2008 at 7:36 am
I’m also a people watcher and observer. When I go around a city and take pictures I find it most interesting to find the mundane stuff that is around you all the time. There are so many interesting people – happy, sad, bored, etc – that it’s always possible to find something there.
Sometimes Bev and I will go downtown, sit outside, eat and watch people pass by. There’s always something fun and interesting
Like the one time a person with angel wings strapped on their back crossed in front of us one day.
That’s passion.
May 6th, 2008 at 2:47 pm
It’s not exhausting…it just is
May 7th, 2008 at 1:27 am
I don’t know Brenda…lol. I’ve been known to be passionate about some things now and again, and hell, I exhaust myself much less anyone around me.
Then again, I’m one of those people who is in constant motion. I’m running, I’m painting… I’m just being me and I’m moving at all times. I’ve been told before that just being in the same room with me can tire someone out.
So maybe..heh.. it is just me… Maybe I need downers! LOL!
May 7th, 2008 at 4:21 pm
You just sound busy
But probably passionate too 
May 7th, 2008 at 10:02 pm
“It is their undercurrent.” I like that. Thoughtful post.
I tried to think of the passionate people I know, and whether I was attracted to them. The two examples I came up with turned out to be equal in their levels of passion, but polar opposites in how they express it. One is exhausting and self-obsessed (as Tiffany describes). The other energizes and inspires.
So I guess for me it depends on how they convey that passion. As an undercurrent, it would make for an interesting, lively person. But if it’s made too obvious, it can be overbearing.
It just occurred to me that I’m only thinking of men. I wonder if my opinion would change if I considered women instead. Hmm.
May 8th, 2008 at 12:03 am
Tiffany, you really nailed it. It can be downright exhausting or it can be inspiring.
LynchSeattle – I have to say, since you turned me on to photography, I do see things a little differently. I was telling someone the other day that I think I like Chicago so much more simply after going around one day and taking pictures of buildings.
Angie – Yes, I’m sure the same passion in two different people could be expressed so differently at at extremes. You’ve made me pause to consider both the men and women I know and what their passions are. I can almost not recognize them in men. It is much simpler for me with women.
May 8th, 2008 at 10:05 pm
I like.