One of the strangest perks we get as members of academia includes free access to the Oxford English dictionary. Although I have since procured a 1913 edition of the same in ten volumes, it is not as complete as the full version online. From time to time, I will actually look up words to find their origins and variegated meanings, and several times I have used it to defend words I use as words that can be used and used the way I use them. I think it's fun, but then again I'm weird.
I spend time every term usually talking about deviations from the "normal". It's actually very rare that you find someone who falls ON the line of normalcy. In fact, the data bear up that it's actually normal to be abnormal, that those who fall on the regression line are probably the weird ones. You see, everyone has passions. They are what make our lives fun. They give us something to which we look forward at the end of a hard week, a difficult trial, a period of diligent work, and in the next life. Some of them are quirky; some of them are not ones in which I would be interested, but they are your passions, because you consider them enjoyable.
Last night, some of my students were trying to convince me that there are more people like me than I think. I gave them the benefit of the doubt and let them try to prove it, and one mentioned that her husband liked Star Trek and referred to him as a "Trekkie". "Does he have a uniform?" I asked. She responded that he did not. "Then he's not a Trekkie." I happen to have one, because I thought it would be fun. I like it, but most people I actually know in real life think it's an unnecessary expense. It's something I enjoyed as a child, and something to which I looked forward sharing with someone who now no longer talks to me.
Most of my passions are small things, things that I collect. I spend hundreds of dollars on books every year, and I buy and display small things that mean something to me. In the end, however, my greatest passion is probably collecting fond memories. The one I find it easiest to ploy is politics, as you may have noticed from reading this blog. I am fascinated by the Founders and the Framers. I enjoy history, philosophy, and science. I read and learn about the things that drove them and that kind of drive us today, because I think that if I understood where they were coming from I'll have a better idea of where I want to go with what they gave us. I find it fun. I found it fun to visit their homes, to walk in their footsteps, and to learn about what made them the people they were.
When that is done, my final passion is my faith. I am a disciple of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and the object of my intent is that I may persuade men to come to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and be saved. I am not a perfect man. I have hope in this, a passion about this, and a penchant for helping people make sense of what their faith means to them. I hope that even though I am a lesser light people will be able to see my Master through my feeble efforts and find their way to a Land of Promise for them. If I can be the activation energy for that, at least that feels good, which is the same reason why we do anything else that's fun.
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