Passion

There are few things that can unify people and I'm glad for that because it means diversity is alive and well.  But passion, that's something we can all understand whether you're passionate about food, music, sports, crafts, whittling, the harmonica, or even writing.  Allow me to be uncharacteristically optimistic for a minute here and work under the assumption that everyone has the potential to be passionate about something.  And I think that this concept is scary to a lot of people, myself included.  I am very passionate about certain ideals and activities in my life from the feminist movement to the Green Bay Packers and that moment when I finally deep-fry a pie to perfection (it will happen one day and when it does I'm positive it will be my crowning achievement).  The notion that everyone can be passionate about something scares me for two reasons: the worry that I'm missing out on my true passion and the knowledge that to be passionate about something makes you vulnerable.  What if I was born to sell weight-loss programs to people over the phone and I'm currently wasting away in college for no reason! Realistically I'm pretty sure that's not my calling, but all the same the point remains that with so much out there how can we possibly try everything?  My response to this is that if someone is truly courageous in life they won't let the immense amount of possibilities discourage them from even starting.  Instead of feeling overwhelmed by this, we should try to take the challenge head on and if we don't find something we're passionate about right away, well trying something new never hurt.  Unless of course that something new you're trying is playing a live-action version of frogger in which case what passions are you chasing... In the end my philosophy is that we're meant to find what we're here for eventually and stress is not it so lets all relax shall we.  As for the second half of my fears concerning passion, I don't know if you've ever played the game apples-to-apples, but let me tell you that game is not for passionate people!  I'm just kidding, sort of, because whenever I play apples-to-apples it seems that everything I'm passionate about is made available to be mocked whether one of my friends plays that Green Bay Packer card under pathetic or the Lawyer card for sleezy and I respond appropriately.  At least what I deem to be appropriate.  The truth is that while yes I can be a tad dramatic and dare I say it overly passionate about things I'm not ashamed of that facet of my personality for I'd rather be too passionate about something then not passionate enough.  If that makes us vulnerable, relish it because one day that passion is going to come in handy for people like us and when it does I personally will break out Aaron Rodgers touchdown dance in celebration!  By the way, have you ever said or thought a word so many times that it stops sounding like an actual word because that happened to me while I was running with passion, also guacamole and ought... what kind of word is ought?  Lastly, we don't have to passionate about every little thing, that's not advisable.  Do you think Maria Sharapova spends every living second on the tennis court... cause I do.  No really, I'm sure she has plenty of other activities to balance her day out, and so should we.  I'm terrible at art of any kind, even reviewing it is painful to watch with me, but every now and then I'll break out the paint-by-numbers because it's nice doing something I know I'm bad at and at which I have no expectations.  It's like a well-balanced meal, you can't just eat only mashed potatoes and nothing else because that's a heart attack waiting to happen.  Every once in a while we have to eat an apple because it's good for us and with peanut butter what's not to like.  I realized that I'm not passionate about running or exercise, but that doesn't mean I can't enjoy it or appreciate what it does for me.  And I couldn't sing for a penny on a street corner, but I'm extremely passionate about music.  In other words, be passionate about what you want, make mistakes along the way and don't worry about the haters. 

This is called a passion flower... who knew!
I want to end with a joke I heard the other day that is as cheesy as it is hilarious... What was the weatherman's forecast for the rap concert?  We're expecting a 'lil wayne' tonight! 
Have a RUN-believable day!
Music recommendation: Day Dreams by Midi Matilda (I can't stop listening it makes me think of summer without having to put that pesky sunscreen on)