Drama vs. Passion

[woodwardiocom]

harlequinaide posted this interesting description of the differences between drama and passion.

A life filled with drama looks something like this:

• Everything gets a huge, emotional response.
  
• The emotional response is often followed by a big action.
  
• Peace is seldom experienced and often much wished for.
  
• Life is either really great or very terrible.
  
• Relationships, work and life in-general feel like a roller coaster.
  
• There is a general feeling of being drained.

A life filled with passion looks something like this:

• Emotions run deep and grow in intensity over time.
  
• Actions are thought out and lead toward the object of passion.
  
• Peace coexists with elation and excitement.
  
• Life is good, even when it's filled with ups and downs.
  
• Relationships, work and life feel balanced.
  
• There is a general feeling of being energized.

© Rinatta Paries, 1998-2002

-Hmm . . .

Comments

[jackwalker.livejournal.com]

Very insightful, that.

[ambrosiaoferis.livejournal.com]

Excellent, except I'd say that the same emotional drive can be taken in either of these directions.

And also, for those of us with hard-wired emotional challenges who need some extra gears in our gyroscopes and power to turn 'em, sticking to a life of the latter description certainly doesn't leave us with extra energy. Some days, (worthwhile) weariness is the best I can do.

[drwex]

I'm tempted to pass this whole thing off as Romanticist nonsense. Essentially, take a set of descriptives of a good life and apply one label to it. Except I've seen plenty of people whose lives were filled with passion and they didn't look much, or at all, like the bottom set of bullet points.

So the question then becomes something like "why these particular criteria" and "why not these others"? If the goal is a definition of a passionate life then it's an utter failure. If the goal is description of a particularly desirable (to some people in some contexts) life then OK, dgnde.

Looking at the negative side, it appears to be a description of someone with poor emotional/impulse control. I don't see any relationship necessary between than and drama.

I guess that's the bottom line, for me: I don't find any of these things necessary or sufficient to the conditions they purport to describe.

[water-childe.livejournal.com]

Drama is part of human interacton. It's sometimes necessary, and even when managed with the least amount of finger pointing, name calling, and suckage, somebody somewhere will think it could have been managed better. :)

[rigel.livejournal.com]

Regardless of whether or not it's really a life filled with drama or a life filled with passion, I think the one thing the list is pointing to is this:

Are the emotional shifts one is experiencing, pleasant or painful or both (or something else entirely) serving someone?

I don't think anyone ever fits one and only one of these lists all the time. I think it's possible to swing between what this purports as passion and what this purports as drama. As someone who considers herself a little more emotionally volatile than most and than she would like to be, I find myself falling under the second list more often than I want.

It does, however, help explain to me why some people might see me as a Drama Queen. And possibly why some people are less interested in close friendships or relationships with me because of the same.

[crazybone.livejournal.com]

Makes sense to me. Other people's mileage may vary.

[caprine.livejournal.com]

Good stuff.