What is Your Passion?

It's time in our extended family to make out the Christmas lists for the rest of the family. With email this is a lot easier than it used to be. One member of the family, my brother-in-law, started his own tradition a few years back by including a Christmas poem with each year's list.

This year, instead of a Christmas poem, he included this short "Testament of a Fisherman," which I appreciated because, to be honest, I just don't "get" fishing. I've often asked fisherman friends what it is that they love about it, and I really listen, but I still don't get it. Of course, many of them don't "get" the attraction of sailing... How can they be so blind? :-)

Anyway, this post isn't really about either fishing or sailing. It's about passion. Passion is integral to "platinum living." Why do we have passion for some things in life? How do you find your passion(s)? And then how can you live them out?

I will have lots to say on all these topics on these pages, but right now, I'm just enjoying the fact that my very hard working brother-in-law has found his passion. And every once in a while, not often enough, he gets to live it out. And that having read this "Testament of a Fisherman," I even get it, just a little. Here it is:


Testament of a Fisherman

By Robert Traver, aka John Volker


" I fish because i love to; because I love the environment where trout are found, which are invariably beautiful, and hate the environs where crowds of people are found, which are invariably ugly; because of all the television commercials, cocktail parties, and assorted social posturing I thus escape; because in a world where most men seem to spend their lives doing things they hate, my fishing is at once an endless source of delight and an act of small rebellion; because trout do not lie or cheat and cannot be bought or bribed or impressed by power, but respond only to quietude or humilty and endless patience; because I suspect that men are going along this way for the last time, and I for one don't want to waste the trip; because mercifully there are no telephones on trout waters; because only in the woods can I find solitude without loneliness; because bourbon out of an old tin cup always tastes better out there; because maybe one day I will catch a mermaid; and, finally, not because I regard fishing as being so terribly important but because I suspect that so many of the concerns of men are equally unimportant-and not nearly so much fun."

My brother-in-law concludes in his own words:

"Well, not a Christmas poem but a passion for me. May you all have your own passion."

Amen.

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