Interview by Sher, Part 1 of 5

Sherrie, over at Sher the Love!, has sent me 5 questions for an interview-style tag.  She answered all of the questions she'd been asked in one fantastic post, but my editing skills are not so finely honed.  I will therefore complete this tag in five separate posts.  I first want to take a second to tell you all how much I adore Sher and her blog.  She's talented, open, honest, funny, and thought-provoking.  And those are all qualities of a blogger that really attract me.  This month she's been doing daily bucket-fillers, and she's done a fabulous job.  So go check her out, after you read and comment here, of course.

The first question is:  What is your life's passion?  Tell us about why, and how you came to love that thing.

This question intimidates me a little.  Especially because of who's asking it.  Sher has a passion for music and running and has accomplished much with both. 

I'm not certain that I have a life's passion.  Is that horrible of me?  I don't think I have the patience or focus for one.  Larry suggested that he was my passion.  True, I adore him.  But he got lots of bloggy love in my last post.  He then suggested that blogging was my passion.  Ugh.  I'm just not even going there with my ambivalence toward this enticing compulsion in which we all indulge.

As I thought, I decided that while I may not go so far as to label the following "passions" I certainly have a category of things that I really love.  I love the arts.  In nearly all of it's forms.  I figured out too late in college that humanities is the study of exactly that.  I would have minored in it.  

I love music.  I love listening, I love singing, I love playing the flute and the piano.  I'm not fabulous at any of it, but it makes me happy.  When I'm feeling discouraged, music lifts my spirits.   The iPod is one of the best technological advances ever.  It makes it so easy to listen to anything at any moment as the mood dictates.  I also love the Hymns.  The song of the righteous is a prayer unto God.  And I often communicate my feelings to my God best through song.

I love visual arts.  I love going to art museums.  I love the Impressionist movement particularly, but seeing anything is amazing. I also dabble in this.  I've been interested in paper cuts lately, and love to incorporate meaningful words where possible.  I paint a little and draw a little, and do calligraphy a little.  Again, I'm not brilliant at any of it, but I have fun.  I like to teach basic art lessons to elementary and middle school kids.  I had a great opportunity to learn to do this in the last community we lived in.  Here I've used this new skill to do some art projects with #3's school class, and they're hooked.  

Literature.  I love to read.  In fact, it's about time to pack up the books so that I won't be tempted as we try to move in the next week or so.  I love to write and you all see some of the products of that hobby here.  This post isn't my best sample, I fear.  It feels too much like a list.  I'm sure there is a way to improve on it.  I am also sure I don't really feel like figuring out what that is at the moment.

There was no big journey leading me to the arts that I can pin point.  I've been singing since I was two, making intricate construction paper masterpieces since not long after that.  As a teenager I listened to the Beatles and Pink Floyd and Bach and Handel.  My walls were plastered with Cassatt and Degas prints. (Though at age 12 it was kitties and Rick Springfield.)

I think that the arts speak to many, if not most, of us.  They touch our souls and evoke emotion.  So not only am I not quite passionate, I am also not original or unique.  But, like Popeye, I am what I am.  And aside from the occasional desire to be the master of one rather than a Jack of all trades, I'm happy with my interests and talents.  Maybe someday I'll find the desire to apply myself and find that passion.  In the mean time I'll go finish that grocery list that I started this morning, brush my teeth, and get to feeding my family.

Note:  Please be patient with me over the next few weeks as I visit your blogs a bit more sporadically than usual.  Once we're settled in the new house, I am sure I'll be back to my regular stalking habits.  Thanks, Mina