I know of people who think having a passion about something is a detriment. They say “why are you going overboard about this (or that)”? This topic can be applied across life’s spectrum but I will try to limit this post to those of us in our senior years. Let’s look at how the dictionary defines passion:

pas·sion [ noun]

1. any powerful or compelling emotion or feeling, as love or hate.

2. strong amorous feeling or desire; love; ardor.

3. strong sexual desire; lust.

4. an instance or experience of strong love or sexual desire.

5. a person toward whom one feels strong love or sexual desire

Although the second through the fifth definition is not a bad thing, especially if it is directed to your mate of many years :) , the kind of passion I am talking about in this post is the first type.  It is a powerful or compelling emotion about a particular subject, thought, or idea.  Another word for having this type of passion is zeal. I love the saying about having zeal in your life. Of course  passions run the gamut; it can be anything from a strong love of baseball (as our last retired president seems to have)  to compassion for our less fortunate fellow human beings and trying to make their lives better (as the president before him has chosen for his senior years). To me life with nothing to be passionate about is hardly worth living. I need some reason to get out of bed in the morning other than the early morning sun shining in my bedroom window.

I can’t understand those who deem having a passion is “getting carried away”! The antithesis of passion is apathy and apathy in our senior years can be very damaging indeed.  For those who see passion as “getting carried away”  maybe their “passion” is  somehow their daily routine. Maybe the morning coffee, afternoon nap, and evening in front of the TV day after day after day is what they live for but I personally can’t see that possibility for myself. I know the Bible tells us to not think too much about the past and don’t worry about the future but to live in the present. A big part of life is that daily routine that most of us seniors, for one reason or another, get ourselves into but to live life without any passions, without anything that you feel very special about is like limiting yourself to only vanilla ice cream. It is somewhat flavorful but also somewhat boring…

So from my personal prospective everyone, especially we seniors, needs to feel some passion about at least a few things in their life. But,we shouldn’t let that passion dominate everything else in our life; that is called obsession and that is not a good thing.  I know the times when I seem to let depression get grip on me is when I don’t feel I am passionate about anything. Part of entering my senior years was finding what to transfer my passion for my occupation that I was leaving to something else. I spent more than a year searching for that substitute. After I settled into it I found it much much more fulfilling than the job I left behind in the corporate world.

For those who might ask why I picked the picture I did for this post the answer is I don’t know.  It just seemed kind of indirectly appropriate to the subject. Or maybe some of the cold pills I have been taking are still lingering in my system :)