This musing was prompted by Robb’s post about pens.
I have pondered all of this before but that was a while ago so I wonder where my passion now lies.
Passion is wonderful
I love people who are passionate about something —as long as it’s a positive passion for a good thing, if you are passionate about being a hateful douchebag, please jog the fuck on— and it honestly doesn’t really matter what that passion is focussed on. I’ve been lucky enough to chat to people about all sorts of hobbies and vocations that they had found and dived deep into.
It’s partly because I’m not built that way, whilst I have passions and hobby, I don’t really go all that deep on them, but I do enjoy learning about new hobbies and there is a fascination when you start getting involved with something new, one that is deepened if someone with deep knowledge joins the fray.
Take, for example, pens.
I had a fountain pen when I was at school, I can’t recall the brand, just that it came in a see through neon yellow casing. I have no idea what prompted me to buy it, likely inspired by my Mum who did a calligraphy course and would sometimes use her own fountain pen to write in a gift card —I still have that pen too, I found it when I was clearing out her flat after she died. I remember being a young kid developing an interest in fountain pens, how they worked, what options were available, ink types, nib sizes and more. This was all pre-internet so I’m guessing a lot of what I learned was from encyclopaedias or the library, or by quizzing my Mum.
Encyclopaedias are fun
Without access to the internet, a lot of my childhood passions and hobbies were driven by books. I retain fond memories of a Reader’s Digest Encyclopaedia for kids, which was a huge tome brim full of short sharp entries for just about everything. It let me go and find out about something —Horatio Nelson, Horseshoe crabs, juggling— and usually lead me to the local library to find out more. My parents, of course, encouraged this and the line between school homework, and my mild young boy obsessions was a thin one.
I know the names of a lot of trees, what a lot of UK birds look like, and one particularly year (1986) I even got fully into the Mexico World Cup, creating my own little tracking notebook to keep tabs on the scores.
Most of these things fell by the wayside of course, I am not a twitcher, I have forgotten how to identify the trees, and the World Cup is just noise these days. It is a pattern that has repeated through adult life.
Take, once again as an example, pens.
When I use pen and paper the sensation means a lot to me. A scratchy pen or dull paper is enough to lightly distract me so with the help of the internet I did some research to find my ideal, reasonably cheap, combination of notebook and pen —A Sigel Conceptum, lined, notebook, with a uni-ball eye micro pen (black or blue ink) hit the spot I found— but to get to that point I did try a variety of different ‘everyday’ pens. I delved into that world, dipped a toe, and learned a little along the way.
And then I stopped. I had my solution, I had something that was good enough for me, and I don’t feel the need to delve any deeper.
A light skim
When I meet someone who has a deep passion for something, and they can convey that passion and knowledge well, I always come away full of admiration, respect, and in some cases a sense of awe. That someone can dedicate themselves to a topic or hobby so fully to become intimate with the details, to let themselves get full drawn into that world is fascinating to me.
I understand the basic psychology at play here; a self-perpetuating sense of achievement, of mastery of a craft, the sense of escape and natural stimulation of doing something you deeply enjoy, and many times the sense of community plays a large part. I’ve taken my son to model railway exhibitions a few times, he loves the trains, I think back to building a small village (on the back of an old door) with my Dad, roads, buildings and all. It was a large part of my life for about 4 months.
The appeal of a hobby is only heightened as you get older and work becomes a repetitive drudge, an abstract thing that sometimes makes me wonder what I’ve actually achieved each day. I mean, yeah, I’ve created more documents, updated some spreadsheets, but nothing I can look at with a sense of completed pride.
So the hobby becomes that thing, something that you own, that excites you, that you enjoy, and that gives you a sense of ownership and achievement and, as there is no ceiling, there is always more knowledge to learn, more skills to pick up, new equipment to try, history to learn and subcultures to explore.
What’s not to like?
What are my hobbies?
I have one very longstanding hobby —you are reading it— and for a while I’d have said photography was one. More recently cycling is without doubt a hobby but beyond that I start to wonder. I enjoy reading novels, I enjoy watching old movies, I enjoy drinking coffee, but none of these have gotten to the hobby level; I don’t meticulously log what I’ve read or watched, nor am I that fussy about my coffee (our Nespresso machine is perfectly fine, yeah I said it).
I know I have passion for things, my wife tells me as much and even included two of my favourite topics in her wedding vows (yes, really):
“I vow to continue to nod along when you tell me about The West wing & Formula one”
It’s just that I don’t deep dive on them. I know a lot about the West Wing because I’ve watched it several times and listened to The West Wing Weekly podcast in its entirety. I know a lot about Formula One because I’ve been watching it since I was a kid, but I don’t disappear into either of those worlds, there are many people who know far more than I about both of these topics.
Clearly I am passionate about my blog but I hope that doesn’t need explaining here, of all places.
I’m comfortable with this, I’ve understood this about myself for a long time. I happily remain the boy with the encyclopaedia, skimming the pages for something new. I wonder what will be next?
In closing I would ask you that, if you have a passion for something please don’t be quiet about it. Talk about it often, write about it, share your thoughts and views with the wider world. We need more people to be passionate about things, no matter what those things are, because that passion brings care, and we definitely need a lot more of that right now.
So, dear reader, what are you passionate about?
What are your thoughts?