OT what is your passion...and why?

I love to hike, and backpack, and lately hammock camp. Which means for the last 10 years or so instead of a pad on the ground in a tent on my week long hikes in the western wildernesses, I sleep in a hammock under a tarp(or under the stars). That is about the only one of my youthful passions that I still regularly participate in. But I keep thinking about getting back into mountain biking, or fat biking is what I'd like to try. Have not yet had the courage to do so.

Music is a passion, as it connects with something deep within me. I can't define it too well, but it is an expression of who I am.

I like other things a great deal, such as tennis, soccer, Arsenal, Cubs, reading, learning. Are they passions? At times, yes.

/www.brainyquote.com/topics/passion

Nature & Wildlife Photography. I can get out-and-about. And it gives me a creative outlet of images I can be proud of.

Every few months, I post a Off Topic slideshow of my work on this forum. Recently, I made video of my all time favorites. Twenty-four Favorites Enjoy!

...Jerry

I have lots of Hobbies, Interests, and Passions (HIP). Before I retired from teaching high school I tried, somewhat successfully, to introduce a HIP program to encourage students to find theirs as they boost context, relevance, purpose, and meaning to what we do.

Mine, in no particular order:

- Photography (I still process and print my own), lately moving into the more abstract/constructivist
- Music, all kinds, and I play guitar and piano a little
- Cars, I love working on them, my interest is in vintage foreign, I have Volvos and a Triumph
- Art, I am working toward a BFA, I like drawing, print-making, and photography
- Electronics, particularly early 70s audio, and I am a reel-to-reel junkie
- Motorcycle cross country touring (no so lately with that one)
- Woodworking
- Running, I've done a couple marathons, halves, and lots of 10Ks and 5Ks
- Cooking, vegetarian cuisine and I am a expert artisan bread baker
- Reading, mysteries and thrillers, philosophy and politics
- Radio, I collect old time radio shows (and new radio too)
- Computers, programming, early adopter from 1978, for fun and I taught it
- Sewing, upholstery
- Beer, drinking and brewing
and a few lesser ones.

Just happened to look in today and see this thread...I played in many bands in my younger days. Lead guitar, acoustic guitar. Mostly covers, some originals. I've been hearing from a lot of old bandmates about doing get-togethers. My biggest passion is music. My genre for playing is a harder blues based rock and hard rock. Zep, Aerosmith, SRV, some GNR, Cream, Allman Bros (most...older, I know). My listening tastes are huge and broad. I really like Patsy Cline, CSNY, a wide variety of country, jazz and folk...and there are so many to choose from...and I listen...and love most.

photography and travel. though I do love watches, knives, boots and ramen

Surfing too, in 87, paddled out at Sunset on a 6'10" made for long island surf, after long flight from NY, now that was funny... still at it

Flying. There's a wholesomeness to the discipline. Something about....one's fate being 100 percent in one's own hands makes one free. An airplane is more than the sum of it's parts. It's spiritual. Anything to do with airplanes....a part....the asphalt on the ramp....the lines painted on the taxi ways. Even a piece of gravel laying on the ramp....there's something spiritual about that piece of gravel. The people...there's a connection...it goes beyond words....that you just know...they know...personalities aside. Even guys you don't like....you know...they have something inside them...somewhere...that connects you. Even the gas smells different.

I flew for the first time in 5 years last week. I had forgotten what it's like to...be me. There's a grin that comes....a whole different me. My brother saw a picture of me when I was flying for the airlines while I was sitting in the cockpit. He said...."That doesn't even look like you". I said...."No. Who you're looking at now doesn't look like me. That's the real me....in that picture".

I've gotten back in the business of buying and selling airplanes. Something I'd done for almost 35 years...until...I just quit. So the first plane I bought last year is just now coming on line....and ready to fly. I did that last week. It makes cancer, strictures, self-pity, fear, it all goes away....or at least...gives me strength to deal with it. Up there....every problem I've ever had...or have now...is not up there...it's "down there"....and I've gained...I've been *given*... mastery over it.

I think IT wins “best post” of this thread

so rich...so rich...I could write an essay on each post...What is that feeling we all feel as we read these posts...is it substance....is it real...where does it go when we die...does ...IT ...die...these are the questions of our lives....there really are no others that reach...reach into the fabric of us...remember that feeling ...its there in all the passions mentioned...and those felt...but silent....to be counterintuitively poetic...it rocks...totally...dudettes and dudes...It screams...

My passions are:

Aviation (I am a pilot, of small planes).

Science, especially evolutionary biology and astronomy.

Looking at paintings in museums and realizing I don't need an
art degree to get feelings and messages from art.

Reading and editing.