Thursday, September 22, 2011

Have You Had One Big Passion?


My friend, Sergio, teaches drama in Brazil.  He sent me this quote:

“I shall have poetry in my life. And adventure. And love, love, love, above all. Love as there has never been in a play. Unbiddable, ungovernable, like a riot in the heart and nothing to be done, come ruin or rapture."
— Tom Stoppard

How scary and challenging is that -- especially for those of us who have learned to love selectively and self-protectively?  I figure if you've had at least one big, crazy, wrong-headed passion in your life (that doesn't end in broken glass or broken bones) then you can say it's been a good run.

I'd even say that "crazy" and "wrong-headed" are not a requirement for the Tom Stoppard love effort - but when you've had at least one "riot in the heart," it helps you appreciate the many other ways of experiencing affection. 

What about you?  Has it been a good run?

2 comments:

  1. My BFF often makes reference to 'the invisible dog', questioning his happiness and if he has been walked. A dog is the very incarnation of passion, and in many respects the epitome of riotous love. The invisible dog serves as a reminder to feed my needs and passions because, in truth, they serve me.

    a good run? My life is a non-stop marathon, all thanks to my friends and REAL family.

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  2. Lil,

    It's been a great run. In retrospect, it's too bad I didn't love myself more...and know how to love better.

    Grand Passion is a great play but can place you in
    the position of great sacrificer. It also gives you some wonderful lines and ego-crushing drama.
    Day to day
    demands push aside great passions.
    A lack of props doesn't help either.

    Remember last summer when you told me of my great passion's love for me... and as soon as the words left your mouth, I found myself airborne off my comfortable chair in my dining room?
    My subconscious had thrown my body onto the floor

    "My old love threw me on the ground and I lay there exposed to all the passion, requited and not
    My dear friends looked on at a loss for words
    waiting for the madness and the passion
    to express itself

    Here's the bite: it's an old love, so strong after all these years it could throw me - Astonish me, astonish my friends
    and express my great love..a lover's leap & crash landing

    Thank good the dog wasn't lying there...

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