To Be Drunk On Something -- Anything
So as to not feel the horrible burden of time that breaks your back and bends you to the earth, you have to be continually drunk. - Charles Baudelaire
Be drunk on something is what both Baudelaire and the professor, Mark Edmundson, are urging people toward. Their goal is the same, they want people to have passion and teach others to be passionate as well. They don't care what people are drunk on as long as they are drunk.
Passion by definition is a powerful emotion, sometimes barely controllable and can come in a sudden burst of inspiration. Sometimes, it takes a person a lifetime to find something to be drunk on and for some, it can be as fleeting as a winter snow in springtime. Just based on how rare and difficult it is to hold onto, it isn't hard to see that many people lack passion and continually go through the motions of daily life. At the same time, how does one judge what a person can be drunk on? I believe many people are drunk on their family, on their work, and on their life as a whole. Is it hard to believe that people can find passion in even the smallest of places?
The first time, I suppose, that I felt the urge to be drunk on something was when I was eight and at the time, this passion was unattainable. I had been watching a television show and that commercial about the starving children in Africa popped up. Suddenly, I couldn't stop thinking about it. All I wanted was to go there. But how does an eight-year-old convince their parents to let them go to Africa? Well, in case you're wondering, it is not effective in the slightest. Something about it being dangerous.
Ever since then, any time Africa comes up, I immediately pay attention. I still am passionate about going there and being there. I want to be the person that changes those starving children's lives. I want to teach them to read. Of course, having a passion like this does not come without opposition. Anytime I mention it, the response from my parents is that I wouldn't survive there without running water and the food I'm used to. Is it possible that my passion can override my fears? Yes! I am determined to prove them wrong.
So yes, I agree with the professor that passion is hard to see in every day life but it is also hard to find. They both have valid points but I am not afraid to say that I am drunk on life, on books, on art, on serving people.
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