PASSIONS-A JOURNEY

Now we present the final installment in our passion series-personal explorations of what motivates each of us.  It’s Henry’s turn.

Unlike my coauthors, Rob and Woodson, my passions are not so agenda specific or definable.  My passions may be

easier to describe than declare. Permit me to start with a statement and then provide some history required by that statement. When dealing with passions my mind is like a rigged roulette wheel, where the slots allow the ball to only settle for a moment, then move on to the next slot, drawing attention instead to the wheel - the circle pointing toward meaning.

As a youngster I seemed to have two overriding interests,

baseball and learning about this world and its inhabitants.  If I wasn’t reading or asking questions I was playing baseball, watching baseball games, listening to baseball games on the radio with my father, debating baseball issues with my friends, committing baseball statistics to memory, or dreaming of a major league career.

As I matured, I read more and more. Walking into a library

always resulted in pure and overwhelming joy because of all those shelves contained. I wanted to know how individual bits of information related to a bigger picture I knew nothing about.  My mother and dad attempted to answer every question and I’m sure I was a complete nuisance.  My teachers and other adults did the best they could with my insistence on answers and I thank them all. 

My interests about which I can say I was or am passionate, have multiplied over the years. They have included volunteering in my community and church, golf, tennis, and spiritual inquiry.  I list these only as examples of interests I could label passions.

As I grow older, I still experience joy when I enter a library or bookstore, but I feel a twinge of sadness because I realize I can’t consume all that is there.  That discomfort has helped me perhaps gain some understanding of my passions. The discomfort requires that I choose the joy I experience each day rather than hover in the cloud that regret or ennui produces. 

I find now that although learning is a passion the other

interests may or may not be defined as passions.  They are pleasures I enjoy but what I derive from them may be more important.  I now find I am consumed with helping others feel the joy I receive from life each day no matter what the particular interest. My passion is finding

ways to help move me, my wife,children,grandchildren, friends and all whom I encounter toward this joy.    Whether I’m experiencing a quiet time with my wife, greeting a stranger with a smile or following my grandkids to their many activities this desire is always present.

I wish to learn as much as I can for as long as I can and to transfer my joy to all those I can.