Passion

       The Wikipedia opening line for Leonardo da Vinci goes, “Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (Italian pronunciation: [leoˈnardo da vˈvintʃi] April 15, 1452 – May 2, 1519, Old Style) was an Italian Renaissance polymath: painter, sculptor, architect, musician, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, geologist, cartographer, botanist, and writer. If I have counted correctly, those are 13 professions.  He mastered all these disciplines in only 67 years of his life.  How can one resonate to all these fields? That’s the big question, and the answer is nothing but Passion.

The poet Laureate Alfred Lord Tennyson wrote “The happiness of a man in this life does not consist in the absence but in the mastery of his passions.” The French philosopher Denis Diderot wrote “Only passions, great passions, can elevate the soul to great things.” Both of these men make sense, lots of sense. Truth be told, there is something admirable about passion because with passion nothing else matters, not critics nor time, nor the weather. Even better is the fact that service comes in as a by-product. It’s a win-win phenomena.  

Passion is that elixir that makes everything else silent. What we do something passionate about, we can go on forever and still be energetic. There is also something about passion that we often misunderstand. Passion is not only found in art. Musicians, authors, exude their passion; we see it because they are performers.  Other people too show their passion in a different way. Programmers who write code until they speak in code, accountants indulge in numbers as if it’s some sort of meal, they are all passionate.  Passion is an element that can develop anywhere.

            How exactly do we find that passion? It can be confusing when everyone knows exactly what they want and you don’t.  Some people rely on school grades and others simply follow their heart. Neither is wrong, but caution is to be used here. Numbers on a piece of paper, they tell something about cognitive ability to a particular subject but they say anything about creative ability or love for the subject. Things we are passionate are simply put are “matters of the heart”.Try out different things, when you find it you will know.

            What happens when you wake up one morning and the things you thought you were good at are not that exciting anymore. It does happen; we humans are really dynamic creatures. The things we like today are not exactly what we will like 5 years to come. The solution is to keep searching. Da Vinci started his career with music, he then went on to painting, science and eventually engineering and a whole lot of other things. He kept trying different things, failing some, moving on to others. That’s life.

Maybe Da Vinci was a genius and it is impractical to walk in his shoes. Maybe that’s true, but there is a lot to learn from him.  Some people say, find your passion and stick to it.  I say find your passion, enjoy it and keep searching. My passion may be writing, or science, or music , I don't know for sure, that's why I'm still exploring. Whether you know your passion or not, keep searching, it’s what makes life amazing.