Dispassion vs. Passion

Have you ever met a person that was so cool, calm and collected, that his/her passivity was a draw? The peace that saturated their personality was tangible. How they got there seemed pretty much congenital....given at birth. I once knew a priest like that. What peace. He seemed totally unbiased and unemotional, a cool cat.

But, when you think about it, don't we want to be passionate about our opinions, such as the causes we esteem and our sense of duty to speak out against injustice.. We like folks who can prove their point with intellect and passion.

I'm pretty passionate about a few things. I dislike abortion and drilling for oil off the coast, and agree strongly with term limits, gun rights, medical marijuana use, capital punishment and border patrol.

I don't know any people of the Islamic faith, so I don't personally have experience with that which is the best from that large multi-sect religious group. Sometimes I find myself doubting their is much good to be found when I have 9/11 and beheadings to add to my figuring.

So, what are you passionate about, other than, say, love making, which is differently directed, I'd say. It's the outside things I'm thinking about.

 

@UserID Interesting topic, I will think it over and get back to you on it, but the apathetic , passive person you describe, reminds me of someone important in my life and it drives me wild.

As for your passions, i think the list is quite interesting as far as some being more liberal and some traditionally more conservative views. Is US at least. One thing i can add is politics, im extremely intrigued and fascinated by it.

To get back to the passive vs passionate thing, being to passionate about things can be negative, so for example radical islam as you mentioned, you can be so passionate about something that no amount of logic or reason will effective in changing your mind, which seems to happen with radical islam.

Also on the flip side, i know you said you don't know any muslims, and see the negative aspects which causes you doubt as to any positive aspects it may have, i would just say remember that we only hear about the planes that crash, no one reports the hundreds of planes that land and take off without a problem.

 

For seventeen years, I worked, off and on, as a crisis counselor, cull. In training for the work, I was shown how to draw out a person, how to get him/her to talk about their dilemmas by using leading statements or questions, then interjecting, "uh huh," "yes," "tell me more," "how did that go?," and others. Once the person is open, he/she can talk for hours about themselves.....and the listener needn't ever respond to, say, a pointed remark.

"People like you talk like idiots," a person with a need might say, to which I might reply, "You have some strong opinions, don't you?" never allowing myself to own what was supposedly directed to me, and to turn the remark around to reflect or allow the person to hear themselves by mirroring their comments through a paraphrase or exact wording of their previous statement.

Knowing how not to own another's feelings or verbal assaults is the key to getting them to recognize their own feelings, and once feelings are discerned by the client, a door to healing begins to open. "Talk about those feelings," I might say. "Interesting, go on."

"So, how have you dealt with that fear?.....How well did that work?" It's then that I might suggest a new approach.

Taking this system into daily living, especially within one's own family life, is a remarkable tool for keeping the speaker the owner of whatever statements are made, and keeping the listener's feelings out of the picture.

As I see it, many times passion is nothing more than reaction or ownership of what was spoken to a person about him/her. Refusing to own what another person spews out is a major cornerstone of passivity.
David

 

No, sadly.