Before I start, I want to thank Matt for giving me this opportunity to share my passions online. Sitting down and writing about what makes me tick has been an eye opening experience. That being said, let’s begin on the topic of Passion.
I sifted the thought around in my head for a while, and realized that in general, I consider myself a passionate person. I care a lot about everything I do and the people I interact with. I would even say that I’m passionate to a fault- It’s hard for me to let a friend make a decision I deem unwise, or take the back seat in any situation.
My passions are synonymous with what I love: my family, my friends, music, sports, traveling… on and on.
My life’s direction in terms of a career has already found a specific path. I’m studying at the Eastman School of Music as a Jazz Performance major. I spend hours every day behind a drum set. So it would be easy to identify music as my leading passion.
I would agree partially. Music is a passion of mine. I love the feeling of music. I can communicate happiness to any person, no matter what languages they speak. I’ve traveled all over the world and the U.S. playing the drums, and playing all sorts of music- and the only conclusion I have drawn is that I simply love it. I can lose myself in music, and I can give everything I have to music, and still feel like I need and want to give more. It’s magical and mysterious to a point that I can’t quantify. So for those intangible reasons, I wake up in the morning and do what I do.
But I would not dare narrow my existence to music. My passions extend far past in a literal sense. Still, music can be a helpful metaphor for how I guide myself to live passionately.
Music, I can share. Oh boy can I share it. I share it with the other musicians I play with. I share it with my audiences. I can share a record I’m listening to with a friend, and I can share that record with myself. Same thing when I compose. If I can share all the parts of my life like this: cooking a good meal, a funny joke, a beautiful sunset, etc… than I live a more passionate life.
Music is pulsating and rhythmic. So is life. Down to the most basic and necessary function in the human body: my heart beat, do I feel rhythm. When I can walk, talk, and breathe in a balanced and dancing way that shouts with the excitement of a tasty beat, I will live more passionately.
Music is dynamic. It has every range of volume and articulation. So does life, and so I must learn to hear it with that knowledge. In music something loud is not necessarily more important. Same with life- it is the pianissimo moments that (when I catch them) can spark the very awe of being in me.
So,
Music is a guide that can teach me to live passionately.
That’s one element of it.
More soon from Yours Truly- for now I’ll leave you with a link that visualizes Passion, and damn good music. Your loss if you don’t check it out: James Brown on the TAMI Show
Kindly,
John Fonseca Fatum
“In music something loud is not necessarily more important.” This is amazing John and speaks to the true nature of passion. You’ve fantastically expressed the true essence of passion, which means not limiting yourself to the things that you do, but encompassing them all in just you being yourself. Passion isn’t something limiting, it’s something liberating and unrestricted by any boundaries. “When I can walk, talk, and breathe in a balanced and dancing way that shouts with the excitement of a tasty beat, I will live more passionately.” Truly inspiring.