Passionate People Make the World Go Round

What is passion? Traveling across the US, our class has been so blessed to have encountered so many interesting, passionate people. Most of these people are just everyday people who believe in something, and I feel that they deserve to be recognized. If I had a million dollars to give every passion person that I’ve met on this trip, I would have to be Bill Gates, because I have met that large of a number:

There’s Thomas from St. Bernard’s Community Center in New Orleans who gives up his time to serve the people of the Ninth Ward.

Lee Silversmith from the Navajo reservation that devoted his entire day to educating our class on Navajo culture and the amount of suffering his people have had to deal with.

Aunt Lunell, who gave up time to escort our class onto Fort Bliss, and guide us for the rest of the day there as well. Along with the numerous soldiers who welcomed us into their Fort and who sit in anticipation of their defense services being needed.

The tour guides from the Church of Latter Day Saints who guided us around their Head Quarters in Salt Lake City, and the numerous people who devote their lives to this religion.

The teddy bear lady, in South Dakota who owns more Teddy bears than the populations of Custer, Keystone, and Hill City combined. She simply collects because it makes her happy.

Theodore from the Orthodox Church in Chicago. He talked to us about the history of the church for so long that I stopped listening and starting thinking about how passionate he was. We interrupted him and started asking him questions and we had to be the ones to break off the conversation.

Mida from the Greenfield Village at the Henry Ford Museum. Seeing her portray a black woman from the 19th century made rethink what it means to be a black American.

Mr. Folk from the Toledo Arts Commission. Seeing how his passion for art has opened doors for him, and how it has opened so many doors for so many local artists in Toledo gives me hope as an artist. It’s possible to be successful and not necessarily sell out.

Mandy Gonzalez and the Cast of In the Heights demonstrated how to use art in a way that motivates social thought as well as social change.

Pete the Clown at the market in Portland. This guy with a college degree was dressed up like clown and making balloon animals, and he was doing to raise money –not for himself –but for a Non-Profit Organization called Activated Ministries.

Dietrich from the Underground Seattle tour. I’m not sure if he was passionate, but he was a very unique person and also very bright. His knowledge base on the history of Seattle was so in depth that it was clear that he wasn’t just regurgitating a manual that memorized a couple of years ago.

The people at the Mission Year House in Philadelphia. I can’t help but admire how much they have sacrificed of themselves to give back to the community that they are in. I think that the organization’s goal to combine spiritual development with social change is something that even most churches aren’t really doing.

Ken Spring, Andi Stepnick, Heather Gillespie, Emily Headrick, Chris Speed, Rashina Bhula, Jenny Kilen, Pierce Greenberg, Emma Shouse, Elizabeth Cairnes and Shirah Eden Foy. These people are so passionate. They are all very different and care about different things but they care about something.

I wondered for a while if passion was part of what it meant to be an American. Then I realized that there are so many other people from other countries who are passionate. But I still think that Americans may have an elevated level of passion. I can’t think of any other place in the world where you can be passionate about anything that you want. Whether it be duct tape or race cars, I don’t think there is such a place outside of America. These passions may even conflict sometimes, but at the end of the day I wonder if that’s the beauty of passion still. Is it because we’re allowed to have conflicting passions, that in a strange sense it unites us? As I continue to decipher what it means to be an American this idea of passion is definitely going to stay on the radar.