the needle in your heart

[petra_quince]

Tonight I went to see the band Goli play at the Lizard Lounge. The opener was Petaluma Vale singing and playing the harp, with Valerie Thompson supporting her on cello. I've always enjoyed Petaluma as Jaggery's harpist, but I've only once heard her play one of her own songs, and didn't know what to expect. She was wonderful! Her songs were poetic

Comments

[desireearmfeldt]

...and then there are those of us who are passionate about more than one thing, and can't choose one to forsake the others for, and thus can't pursue/commit to any of them fully. Is that about not being passionate enough? Possibly. I do regularly envy the people who have One Thing and are deeply immersed in it, the way I envy people who have life-long (non-dysfunctional) creative partnerships. But I *like* my collection of things!

People who have lots of different interests and things they think and know about are interesting -- often more interesting than someone who has a single Grand Passion, from the perspective of someone who doesn't happen to share that passion.

[petra_quince]

True! I know find people with a wide range of interests to be interesting; I don't know if it's a cultural trope or what that makes me think there's something superior about the Grand Passion.

[desireearmfeldt]

I think Passion, like charisma, can be very attractive. And, people with a Grand Passion are most likely to be the ones doing especially well at whatever their thing is, because they're spending so much time and energy and thought on it. Also a Grand Passion makes for a clear and neat narrative. So I think there are a lot of reasons we like to tell stories about these sorts of people, thus giving the Grand Passion a special status. (The One True Love story is a special case of the Grand Passion story, come to think of it. And similarly, most of us don't have One True Love, we love many people throughout our lives, and often that's more desirable in real life anyway.)

[bex77]

You are such an incredible writer! I adore being inside your head for a moment. It always makes me want to stay longer.

I hear you. Both in the "not having an answer right this moment and then thinking about it for days" thing and in the "my passion? Um...well..let's see...actually, no..." way.

Welcome to the sound bite culture. I have learned that even if the answer is six paragraphs, I need a 5-word summary. And even if there are seven things I could tell you, I need to pick one. It's tough to tell if you want to hear about theater, or new restaurants, or figure skating or cats or travels or work or oops... that thing I'm not supposed to say that occupies my heart... but I smile and try (in that order, except the last one) to see what will make you smile and tell me your news.

Your writing makes me want to try harder, with you and everyone I see, to find an easy way to connect.

[petra_quince]

Thank you for the kind words. I'm glad someone else understands why that question is so reductive for some people!

You're great at putting folks at ease when you talk to them; that's as good away to connect as I know.

[ayelle]

That was beautiful. I could easily imagine reading it in a magazine.

[petra_quince]

Thank you. I'm really gratified that you liked it.

[audioboy]

Personally, I think you're awesome as a soft, naked heart. Just being around you makes me (and other people, I am sure) happy.

As to passions, well, you do play a mean Foley telephone. :-)

[petra_quince]

Thank you! And Foley might not be my passion but it's terrific fun.

[lillibet]

Have I told you about Grandma Moses? She was in her 70s when her arthritis got so bad that she could no longer do the embroidery she loved and had won many prizes for at county fairs. Someone suggested that she try painting, so she took a local class geared toward seniors and found that she could still hold a brush and that she enjoyed it. Some of her paintings were in a display in the window of the local drugstore when a New York gallery owner found them. Not long after he staged a solo show of her work, as part of the growing folk-art movement, and she became an international phenomenon. She lived to be over 100 and had a thirty year career as a painter. All that started after what she thought was "her life"--her marriage, raising her children and grandchildren, being a prize-winning embroiderer--was over. You never know when something will grab you and you never know what you will have to give up in order to find it.

[petra_quince]

I've heard of Grandma Moses, but not about her embroidery background. She was amazing!

I'm not shutting myself off from the possibility of a getting grabbed - just not counting on it.