Album Cover :: Image – Highresaudio.com
Passion Entry :: Journal 1982-1983
Neil Young has been a hero of mine since high school when I first heard and purchased Harvest. I’ve owned quite a few of his albums since then, at least I thought so until learning he’s made forty-one albums, and twelve with Crazy Horse. Our collection is less than half that and those are all digital now because I sold my vinyl collection years ago, and our daughter burned and uploaded all our CD’s when she was in high school. Sometime during the late 90’s and into the next century I lost track of him and only listened to what we already owned of his.
I adore a few of his albums, and dislike a few of them. Are You Passionate? is not a favorite, especially the title of the album and title track. It annoyed me from the moment I saw the album cover. Why’s he asking the question? Why does anybody ask that question? Are you passionate? Am I passionate? That’s kind of personal Neil. He’s not being ironic either. He’s sincerely asking us. Why does anyone inquire about someone’s passion? It’s feels gross and shallow. Most of the time the individuals who do bring it up, who talk about passion, who lecture on it, are suspect. They may even own software with an algorithm that calibrates levels of passion based on a series of questions, and attempts to tell someone else who they are. Like a lot of things, Neil’s not asking us as much as he is telling us, “we should be passionate about something and if we’re not… well.” It feels offensive because while we all search for a path in our lives, he’s exploiting someone’s uncertainty, insecurity and fear.
People don’t just talk about it either. Sometimes they try to brand it — not with optimism and helpfulness, if that’s even possible, but with judgment and a logo which they refer to as a visual asset — how to feel it if we’re not feeling it, and how to feel about ourselves if we don’t. I haven’t googled it, but I’m certain there are websites, apps, self-help books on Amazon, and books on peoples nightstands, even motivational vampires, running seminars in hotel conference rooms telling people how to feel more passionate. They might even offer all-day passion seminars for $500, or $650 which includes their book and a box lunch. It’s patronizing, dismissive and rude. If you’ve signed up for one of these seminars, get your money back. It’s a money grab.
It seems to me if we love something we already know it. If we don’t love something, we know that too and we’ll move on to something else until we find it — something we’re passionate about — and that’s only if we want to. We might even feel passionate about something and then lose that feeling over time, like lovers. Everything is possible. There are no rules. There’s no methodology no matter who tells us there is.
Teaching passion is a myth. It’s no different than telling someone who they should love, what their favorite color should be, or the proper way to grieve. Never listen to anyone tell you how to feel and what you should feel especially on social media. They always have an agenda and it’s most often self-serving because they’re lost and confused about themselves, they’re vampires, or worse, they believe they actually know. They don’t. Walk away. Don’t be seduced by their shiny objects and misled by the passion bullies, not even when it's Neil.
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“Passion Is a Fashion” – Joe Strummer
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Songs :: Only a Fool Would Say That by Steely Dan, Something You’re Going Through by Graham Parker, Brilliant Disguise by Bruce Springsteen, and Vampire Blues by Neil Young
© C. Davidson