Once More, With Feeling

Mutts by Patrick McDonnell.

I've been told I eat my corn flakes with passion ~~ that I can talk to a tree with such fervor it'll reach out and hug me.  My past boyfriends always adored my "passion," until we had an argument and then they would simply castigate it as "irrational" and "emotional".  Me, I like my passion, crazy as it is sometimes...OK, it's often loud, sometimes disruptive, occasionally misguided ~ but never not true, never not profound, never false. Recently I was asked, "yes but aren't you just faking it?" when I expressed how deeply I felt about something; and that question cut through me like the double-edged sword on which Yin and Yang balance precipitously...deeply, emotionally...enlightening.  I've been cut down recently, the fire behind my passion has been doused with the doubtful waters of the disbelieving  ~~ last night's music and food and conversation was a bit like twine, wrapping itself around my damaged limbs, helping me hold it all together.....and so I remember that I love my passion ~ fueled by Mexican sensibility, tempered by  an Americanized sense, colored by clove and cinnamon emotions. 

If you feel passion about something, show it ~ shout it ~ share it.......and if for some reason something keeps you from feeling, or expressing, your passion, then mooch off someone else's passion until you can grow some of your own to share..... just don't cut down anyone else's passionate personality ~ our forest needs those kinds of trees.  In that comic strip up above, Earl is the lovable pup, who is always hanging out with his best friend....Mooch, the curious cat from next door.  If you can't be an Earl, be a Mooch ~ or maybe a Tom-Tom.

Comments

[DailyTexican]

You're not only a Latina, but a Chicana. Damn, there's some passion. I hate to stereotype, pero for the most part it's true. Most of the raza I know is pretty passionate about something - whether it be politics, religion, smoking weed, or watching football and drinking beer.

My passion is often interpreted as "loconess." Really, people think I'm crazy. You mentioned relationships. Forget it. Some folks just don't know how to have as much passion or be as passionate as you, so they think it must be wrong.

You're right on lady. Keep expressing your passion.

[glo]

i feel you, pretty lady. one of the great yogic principles/ restraints is that you never take anything away from anyone-- i.e. criticism tends to reduce others, so it's not a positive way to evoke change. your nay-sayers are probably only jealous and amazed at your energy and your drive-- after all, what are THEY doing to work change in themselves and in the world? sometimes i think that cynicism is just another form of laziness, like sitting on the sofa with the remote, flipping thru everyone else's "little projects" -- although the cynics may believe that optimism is simply naivete or simple-mindedness. i guess that is one of those unsolved and unsolvable mysteries. anyway, i am too busy with becoming what i want to be to waste time arguing with someone who tells me i cannot, or that it won't work or won't matter, anyway. i'll leave them to their black berets and smoky coffeehouses. i'll leave them with the words of dorothy parker, who (allegedly) once told hemingway in exasperation, "you know, ernest, the sun also SETS." there's a proverb that says (something like) "he who says it cannot be done should not interfere with he who is doing it" (now i personally would write "HE who says it cannot be done should leave SHE who is doing it the hell alone b/c she is busy" but you get the idea.)