Passions Are Good

I grew up in a setting that seemed to really prize moderation. A strange sort of guilt started to emerge whenever you were enjoying something too much, and I only realized much later that this was an inherited habit that went generations back. I came to expect that falling in love with something meant that I would eventually be cut off from it.

Sometime after my school had banned Star Wars toys, I remember telling my parents, “I’m not sure what the new thing is gonna be for me,” to which I heard, “Do you really have to have a thing?”

If you know me, the answer is absolutely yes. I go in hard after my passions. I’m an enthusiast! Also, it was the ‘90’s, and there was no shortage of cultural phenomena to obsess over. But I started to feel like I needed to partake in Pokemon and Zelda in secret.

These days, I love seeing my kids fall in love with… whatever they happen to be falling in love with at the moment. When you love someone, you love what brings them sparks of life. Hot Wheels, city buses, volcanoes, cats, Moomin, Spider-Man. I find it odd that we’ve learned how to look at our own pleasure with suspicion. If anything, I think the things that make our hearts sing can help light our path forward.