Living passionately



Have you ever seen trekkies? It's a documentary about people who love star trek. I mean really love star trek. One lady wears a star fleet uniform complete with phaser to her job and also to the clinton trial where she was a juror. There's the couple who met at a star trek convention dressed as klingons. He shoved her to the floor and she shoved back, which is perfectly acceptable klingon mating protocol. They got married. Don't even get me started on the erotic fan fiction about Kirk and Spock. Go rent it. Watch with friends. Don't drink anything while you watch it, lest it come up through your nose. When it's over you will feel normal, well adjusted and like you have a life.

But there's more craziness: people stood in line for PS3s, Wiis overnight. Grown men paint their faces and go shirtless to snowy packers games. I have a friend who sews her own award winning costumes to go to comicon dressed as a manga character. There's a lot of crazy people out there.

But don't you ever wonder what it's like to love something that much? For something to mean so much to you, that you do crazy things? That you will endure being mocked for it? That it's so important to who you are, that you don't care what people think?

I think a lack of passion in our lives makes us boring. I think living a normal life leads us with nothing to talk about except TomKat and Brangelina. We live vicariously through our celebrities, because we ourselves, are not living. I think we should be less normal and more passionate.

I've always been drawn to sub-cultures. I have a jeep, a mac, a motorcycle and a snowboard. I know a load bearing carabiner when I see one. I think it's because sub-cultures are full of interesting people. People who get excited about acratch ballheads, warn winches or dyson vacuums. I love people who are passionate. I met a 14 year old girl who can jet a triumph motorcycle engine herself. I asked myself later where she was when I was 14 and matt blithely replied: "2 years from conception".

Tricia and I were asked in an interview what we most looked for in a partner and as if we were playing the new newlywed game, we both answered "passion". We wanted a partner that was passionate about life. Tricia is currently single if any of you passionate males are out there reading this.

So maybe we should all be a little less normal. Maybe getting up early to drive to schutzhund competitions is awesome. Maybe we should all find something we love so much that it helps make our lives meaningful and our stories more about us and less about Britney Spears. Anyone who's competed in the olypmics hasn't had a normal life. None of our great artists were normal. Maybe after trekkies, we should then watch Rudy and cheer for the people who were lucky enough to discover what they were passionate about and spend their life chasing it.

Posted: Fri - February 23, 2007 at 02:48 PM          

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