Passion is one of the strongest emotions a person can feel. It not only moves people to accomplish great things, it can be exhausting at times! As a person who has always been deeply embedded in the arts, I have had some musical or artistic moments in which I was so moved by the passion of the creator that I just cried. Such deeply moving experiences are rare but when you experience such a thing, it remains in your memory forever!
Leontyne Price was one of the most talented opera singers I’ve ever heard. Her magnificent voice and her stage presence in La Traviata was my first experience in attending a performance by the Metropolitan Opera. I couldn’t hold back the tears as she sang notes so high and sweet that I’ve never had any experience come as close to duplicating my emotional experience.
I was also greatly moved by the Hall of the Crucifixion painting by Polish artist Jan Styka at Forest Lawn Cemetery in California. My cousin had visited the cemetery and viewed the painting, which is 195 feet long by 45 feet tall, and brought me a tri-folded postcard of it. The time, effort, and detail of this mammoth painting left me breathless. Certainly it reveals the passion of Styka as he had to leave it behind in America, never to see it again. (He brought it for the World’s Fair display.)
The founder of Home Interiors, Mary Crowley, said to find something you liked to do with a passion so that you would do it for free and give it away until people are willing to pay you for it. I’m not sure of the exact words, but she turned from being a poor single mother to one of the most successful business women of our country. This formula for success along with her passionate belief in Jesus Christ made her a powerful force in the marketing industry.
I hope that my passion for education is evident in my daily life. I know that God had a plan for me to be a teacher and I have let Him guide me in this life of education since I was sixteen years old. I cannot think of a day in my life that I did not actively think about education of children. Thus, it is my hope that my passion will rub off on students and parents in such a way that they will develop a passion to achieve their dreams. It Is, therefore, my duty to provide a variety of experiences to my students so they may taste what lies out in the vast world…and once they’ve tasted it…perhaps they will develop their “passion” to pursue.
I am taking a risk by even mentioning this next statement: I’ve always had an inner desire to paint “something” that moved me greatly. Throughout my life, I have painted often, but never found that subject which drove a passion in me to create. Recently, as a member of my church choir, I was greatly moved by the words of a song we sang. It haunts my mind during the night, during the day, and nudges me to paint what it describes. Will I do it? I don’t know…but I am so moved by the words that a passion is growing within me. Now that I’ve voiced it, it will be interesting to see if I accomplish that of which I dream.
- Kay