My friend has been in social justice youth groups, and is interested in social reform work. I don’t necessarily have the same interest, but do value such a career. I would like to be socially-involved, however, I don’t know if I have the energy to have both a satisfying and impactful job. My friend feels the same.
Laura Rodriguez de Simons, our speaker, talked about reconciling passion with a healthy personal lifestyle. I asked, “Do you think there is a place for the less passionate in social justice work?”, and she said, noting that she was an idealist, that she believes everyone has some investment in sociocentric issues. I pried a bit, and so it’s probably clear that I’m of a somewhat different mindset. I think most people, I won’t say all, have emotional investment in certain issues, but not all’s interests meet the threshold of activism. So how do you achieve the investment to prompt proactive and purposeful change? And can you? The answer I usually hear is education and or some variation of “you just do it”, but I wonder if passion is always “found” or if sometimes it must be developed more “painstakingly”.
3 thoughts on “Difficulty Developing Passion”
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I think that passion is a result of a meaningful impact that is augmented by acts such as educating yourself. For example, if she had brought in a person she herself advocates for, and that person discussed their own struggles, I would be willing to say that at least a few of those present would be motivated enough and passionate enough to involve themselves in some way and perhaps find their ultimate goal. I appreciate what you’re saying because its often the student dilemma. We intellectualize things like this instead of attempting to experience it ourselves. Thanks for sharing!!
I was at this talk as well, and I think you brought up a very interesting point. From what I understood of Mrs. Rodriguez de Simons’s answer though, was that you don’t necessarily need to be really passionate about social justice work to get involved, and that actually you can turn whatever you are passionate about into something you can use to serve the community. I think she brought up the example of a doctor who is passionate about medicine, but takes a week or two out of his year to serve an underprivileged community, which I thought was a really positive and encouraging message for those of us who aren’t as directly passionate about community service work.
I was also at this talk, and like William I really appreciated your question. I took from Laura’s answer that people who are less passionate about these issues can be just as important in activism by carrying out the logistics. Passion is great and passionate people are necessary to spark change, but it takes people with all sorts of skills to successfully implement programs that will help a community.