Is Passion Limited?

[Moristans]

Let's not confound aging with senescence. Everything and everybody ages at the same rate. Not everything and everybody senesce at the same rate. I think it's the feeling that our mind is willing but our body is not is what ultimately defeats our passion for the things we like to do and makes us feel like crap about our lives.

If I didn't rip my Achille's tendon to shreds running submaster's track, I'd probably still be competing in master's track. One of the things about being diagnosed with a uncurable, chronic, disease at a young age is that you get a nice splash of coldwater thrown on your sense of immortality precisely at the time when you should be feeling most immortal. That made me more passionate about what I could do physically and more passionate about pursuing it for as long as I could. Not being able to get up on my toes at a 100% sprint anymore made me feel like crap about it.

Today, there are many many more outlets for older people than before, probably because of the aging populations in countries that enjoy the luxury of leisure time. There's a lot of buzz about how happy men in heir 60s apparently are. I can't wait for the day when my hormones aren't raging anymore and I can enjoy the simple pleasure of a well prepared grilled cheese sandwich without worrying about anything else in my life.

So, I don't think it's the prospect of living a mortal life that kills our passion, if our passion is killable. I think it's the inability to enjoy what we feel passionate about in any meaningful way. From Monty Python's point of view, it's difficult to feel passionate about comedy when nothing is funny to you anymore.

From my point of view, it's just plain difficult to be passionate about that brand of British comedy for any length of time, period. I still enjoy Benny Hill and Monty Python, but I'm not cushed that we haven't seen any new material in decades.