Passion

What are you passionate about?
Webster’s dictionary defines Passion as: any powerful or compelling emotion or feeling. I’m passionate about a lot of things – chocolate cream pie, Monday night football, good service in restaurants, and the need to declare boom boxes and portables stereos illegal in all provincial campsites. But one passion that stands out for me, is a desire for things to be just and fair.

It seems to me that as a society we have become obsessed with my rights instead of what is right, with justice for me instead of justice for all, with “I” instead of “we”. These are not new thoughts by any stretch – but I wonder what the long term impact of this ‘self-centered’ view will be?

We have come to a point where one seriously considers the risks of discussion or debate on any of these issues for fear of being labeled activist or passivist, pro-labor or pro-management, pro-life or pro-choice, a right wing capitalistic pig or a left wing tree hugger. Is it possible to have an opinion without being labeled? When did the world become so black and white? Most of my world is gray. If I find an issue that is truly black and white, that is, it is ‘truth,’ I hold it tightly because in this world truth is a rare commodity.

In our quest for our ‘rights’ we seem to have lost a sense of who we are as a society. There was a time when the common good was an important factor in deciding what we do. Are we setting ourselves up for failure as a society if we only look out for number one? We say "our children are our future," but are we teaching them to work together, to think of the other person, to be self-less rather than selfish? Are we teaching them to listen to other people’s points of view and respect each other and to accept that its okay to be different? Or are we teaching them that my rights are always more important that anyone else’s, that the one who talks the loudest, threatens the most, and pushes the hardest is the winner and winning is more important than being right?

There used to be an expression, “keep the faith”. One definition of faith goes like this, “Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” I’ve seen the substance of things hoped for – that things can be different. When the tragedy of Sept. 11th hit New York, it literally and figuratively shook that city to its very foundation. New York, previously known as the most unfriendly city in the world became a city of brotherly love. Neighbors, who had lived across the street from each other for years and had never met, spoke to each other for the first time. Race and color didn’t matter. The police went from being ‘the enemy’ to being ‘heroes’. People opened their homes to strangers, and for a time we cared more for each other than we did on September 10th. We all saw the worst in humanity bring out the best in humanity.

Bringing out that best in others. Now that’s something to be passionate about.