Passion and Quality

“Those who speak of love most promiscuously are the ones who’ve never felt it.  Once you’ve felt what it means to love – the total passion for the total height – you’re incapable of anything else.” – Gail Wynand from The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand

 “When we are unhurried and wise, we perceive that only great and worthy things have any permanent and absolute existence, that petty fears and petty pleasures are but the shadow of the reality.” – Henry David Thoreau

 “Set the gearshift for the high gear of your soul.  You’ve got to run like an antelope – out of control!” – Trey Anastasio from the Phish song “Run like an Antelope”

                 I like to tell my students and athletes that I have boiled my life down to about four essential passions: loving my family, teaching, coaching, and traveling the world.  There are a lot of other things to do in this world, but you can pretty much find me doing one of those things on any given day of the week.  Unfortunately, many people do not know where their passions lie, and they often spend countless years going down avenues of life that are devoid of meaning and completely soulless.  At times people abandon their passions, seduced by temptresses like money and/or fame.  It is my belief that there is no bigger waste of a life than living it without regard to your passions.  The pursuit of a great passion fills a person’s life with meaning and enables him to access his full potential as a human.  The real question(s) thus become: What is your passion? and How do you find it?

                One concept that I refer to often when trying to answer these two questions is Quality.  I stole this idea from Robert Pirsig’s book, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, so I can’t take credit for the initial philosophy, but I can demonstrate how this concept works in my life.  In his book Pirsig steadfastly refuses to define Quality, but it basically refers to the things which you think are good.  Identifying “Quality” is thus a personal process which happens differently for each person.  This identification relies heavily on the use of one’s intuition.  What are the things that you know are good (even if you can’t explain why)?  To what activities or people are you drawn?  What experiences feel right and necessary in your life?  The search for Quality encompasses all of these questions.  Pirsig believes that people should dictate their lives according to their feeling of Quality in any given situation.  Now, I know that the real world intrudes on our lives in many ways, but a world where each of us worked in harmony with the deepest needs of our soul could be a really good place.  Pirsig realizes of course that many people can never recognize Quality in their lives, but he also provides a nice roadmap for the person looking to live his life based on experiences that give him joy.  The goal of peace and happiness is attainable if we only listen to ourselves and form our lives in such a way that we can access Quality situations as often as possible.

For me the search for Quality is a constant.  I want to try to fill my life with as many peak experiences as possible while reducing the number of experiences that I find to be un-pleasurable.  Now, I don’t think I can create a world where I don’t have to take out the trash, pay my bills, or grade papers for hours on end, but I can try to maximize the things in my life that are good.  My wife exudes Quality.  I knew when I met my wife that she was a good match for me.  She is one of the few people I never tire of being around.  Others may see she or I for our shortcomings, but I just got a strong sense, from the very first night that I met her, that she was someone that I needed to know better.  We have built a nice life together around the idea that we don’t need too many things in this world.  Even though she could be earning much more in the private sector, she works with me at Palatine as a teacher assistant helping out our special needs population.  She loves her job and is good at it.  Our mutual pursuit of Quality has allowed us to maximize our time with each other and enjoy a great professional situation.  We sacrifice money, but we are paying for a feeling of Quality that is much more important to each of us.

I also feel intense Quality when working with the athletes on the team, and I hope they sense it as well amongst each other.  I truly feel that I coach the best people in the school.  There are no athletes more dedicated or more together than the boys I coach.  For me, Quality and passion work hand in hand to help create a great situation.  I sense the goodness in the people on the team, and it helps me to know that my passion for running isn’t being misdirected.  Sometimes when we are running together and no one is talking, I get this overwhelming feeling of shared purpose and joy.  There are quite a few times when I realize that there is no place in the world that I would rather be than running with those kids.  I love the sound of our feet hitting the pavement and the rhythmic breathing as we coast effortlessly on our run.  I sense this same Quality after we finish a hard workout together.  This past summer we ran a challenging hill workout up at Devil’s Lake in Wisconsin.  I challenged the team to run ten of these tough hills, and we all set about accomplishing the task together.  On the tenth one we ran all the way to the top of the east bluff at Devil’s Lake.  The feeling as we finished was overwhelming.  Everyone was high-fiving and congratulating each other.  We survived a challenge together and that feeling was the payoff.  Everyone could sense that the workout had been a good experience even if it had taxed us to the brink of exhaustion.  The meaning of the experience was evident in the passion and emotion displayed both during and after the workout.

Quality and passion are thus inextricably intertwined.  I really think that passion becomes evident when people apply energy within situations where they feel great Quality.  Quality is the recognition of goodness, and passion is the value that enables us to take full advantage of that goodness.  Passion occurs when you throw yourself heart and soul into an enterprise.  Many times, people think that working hard is a demonstration of passion.  I disagree.  Passion may involve hard work, but it also contains an emotional element.  People with passion care.  They care about the results of the things they do.  They want to create something that has great Quality so that it can be shared with others.  I feel this way each day about my coaching.  I once told my wife that she would be scared if she ever knew how much I thought about how to make the team a better experience for the athletes.  There obviously has to be a balance in the lives of everyone involved with the team, but I know that my passion is well-directed.  I would coach the team for free.  It is simply what I want to do, and I care very deeply about producing a good result for all of the kids involved.

The big lesson to be learned here is that people gravitate to others with passion.  I was drawn to coach at Palatine because of the opportunity to work with Steve Currins and Fred Miller, two people whose passion for the sport are obvious.  In turn I met a number of young athletes who were also excited about getting better and loved to run.  This small nucleus of passionate souls attracted others, and the results have been tremendous.  Never underestimate the potential of a bunch of people who all stoke the same fire.  My experience with the Palatine cross country team has shown me that passionate people are the true “prime movers” of the universe.  They are the motive forces behind all great enterprises.  Wherever there is great invention or success happening, you will find people of passion.  My encouragement to all of our young athletes is to seek out the Quality in their lives and then apply their whole-hearted passion to it.  The results have the potential to be spectacular.  Not every venture we take on in life can succeed, but you can never go wrong when you have spent your life applying yourself to the things you love.