The Passion of the Enticed

For those of you who know me, I am opinionated on a lot of subjects and will let you know what I'm thinking along with whatever judgments I've made. As I grow older, I have been working on making no assumptions, keeping an open mind when different viewpoints are presented, and seeing personal situations for what they are vs. what they appear to be. While I work on these things, I think it's given people the impression that I have a laissez faire attitude. Oh my was that proven wrong on this.

I got on the phone with a friend of mine and she mentioned that she was watching the Bears game. I already have my thoughts on the Bears, but I hadn't had a chance to share them with her. She also mentioned they were playing the Dallas Cowboys - a team I enjoy watching lose more than the Bears on any given Sunday. As the conversation went on, I harped on how Bears fans can't live beyond 1986 a la Uncle Rico from Napoleon Dynamite can't live beyond '82. If the 2008 Bears went 16-0, had stats that were superior to those of the 1986 Bears, fans would continue to say "Yeah...but they weren't the '86 Bears..." and discredit a bit the accomplishments of the newest teams. Her rebuttal to it was "Well, I was 10 or 11 years old when they won and ... it was unbelievable." I was like, "But yeah, it was 21 years ago!" She then personally attacked me by saying "That's because you don't have passion for anything in your life."

Oh, that got me fired up. Once again, I default to the dictionary definition of passion:

Main Entry: pas·sion
Pronunciation: 'pa-sh&n
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English, from Anglo-French, from Late Latin passion-, passio suffering, being acted upon, from Latin pati to suffer -- more at PATIENT
1 often capitalized a : the sufferings of Christ between the night of the Last Supper and his death b : an oratorio based on a gospel narrative of the Passion
2 obsolete : SUFFERING
3 : the state or capacity of being acted on by external agents or forces
4 a (1) : EMOTION passion is greed> (2) plural : the emotions as distinguished from reason b : intense, driving, or overmastering feeling or conviction c : an outbreak of anger
5 a : ardent affection : LOVE b : a strong liking or desire for or devotion to some activity, object, or concept c : sexual desire d : an object of desire or deep interest

I'm willing to venture to say definitions 4a,b & 5a,b, and d were the ones she was referencing. I feel there are plenty of facets of my life that would fit the definition. Music is one of them. I've grown up with music my whole life and have developed a knack for playing it, singing it, and acting with it.

I told her about that part of my life and told her I could arguable say there are bands that can out-do the Beatles from a historical perspective (for the sake of argument, let's say Led Zepplin in the 70's vs. Beatles in the '60s although I am not a fan). She lost her top when I said that! "How can you say that?! You know there wouldn't be anybody else without the Beatles, " shes said. I concur with her. Yes, I respect the Beatles for what they did for music, film, and video. I know that almost every band that has come since the Beatles owes a part of their success to the Beatles since they were the pioneers of self-written, self-produced rock n' roll music where artistry primarily ruled what was written. However, I think there are bands/artists that outgrew that mold and did the same things just in a better way (Prince, Michael Jackson, Oasis, U2 to name a few). I also feel Jimmy Hendrix is over-rated. She then replied, "I have much more respect for the guy that built the first car with no blueprints, no real help...pioneering his way through it than the guy who just took an existing design and copied it and declared it's a new car." My response to that is that if that were true, why buy a new car? I am sure you would pick a 2008 Nissan Murano over a 1908 Ford Model T as your daily mode of transportation. I also say why even drive with that line of thinking? If that were that case we should have more respect for the guy that first learned how to walk than Wilbur Wright because you have to learn how to walk first before you can fly? C'mon. Precedence in this case doesn't justify supremacy. Uh oh....here come the pitchforks .

I know I am causing calls of blasphemy and heresy here. However, these are my own opinions and I hold true to them. The reason why we get passionate about things like football and music and badminton is because there is a personal investment we put into them. I argue that the personal investment is what we're really talking about when we're cheering for "our" team or band.

Her words caused such a reaction in me that I second guessed myself for a quick second. However, I know that it was a reaction to what I was saying and I was coming off as disrespectful to how she felt about the Bears. So for that, I do apologize to her and other Bears fans out there. You can feel the way you do about the Bears and it's just as valid as how I feel about how you feel about the Bears. Just don't say I'm inpassionate!

Currently listening : Dial-A-Song: 20 Years of They Might Be Giants By They Might Be Giants Release date: 17 September, 2002