Patch Adams, M.D.
Passion and persistence can change the world! I'm talking about hanging in
there joyfully. That last part is extremely important. I'm traveling
around quite a lot now, both to build our hospital and to stimulate
service. Whether I'm speaking to CEO's of hospitals or to university
students, I encounter amazement. When I probe, because I would like
us to be commonplace, not amazing, I hear not amazement for our ideals
and the breadth of our work, but for the passion and persistence I
display in its pursuit. This is disturbing to me, because I have a
great desire for tremendous social change. Our society is suffocating
under powerlessness, bereft of self esteem. I don't want people
amazed at our passion or persistence. I want them inspired to work
their butts off.
Passion and persistence are not attributes of special people, blessed
to possess them, but rather extremely important tools for change. I
want to make these precious gems commonplace, so that it is no longer
interesting that people are full of passion and persistence, because
it is the rule.
To show you the company that they keep, some of their cousins are:
desire, intensity, inspiration, obsession, commitment, compulsion and
concern. Passionate and persistent people are relentless, dauntless,
consumed, crazed, insane, raging, energized.
I'm not sure passion and persistence can be taught. But they can be
inspired, studied, desired, and pursued. I think that's why I am me.
I consider myself a designed person--I don't have very many
unintentional acts. I'm trying to be a person that might inspire
passion. I get good feedback, which is why I do it. Get involved!
Can passion and persistence be found, through revelation, vision or
rational thought? I think so. The shy and quiet exhibit passion and
persistence in equal depth as the loud and obnoxious, though I'm more
familiar with the latter.
I believe passion and persistence are incompatible, in fact
dramatically damaged, by cynicism, apathy, discouragement, whining.
If you are going to be a social crusader you must eliminate these from
your vocabulary and behavior. They are pernicious.
Passion, of course, implies glorious scenes: the future grand opening
of your hospital building, or getting a bill passed that you worked
on for 10 years. But that kind of passion needs no encouragement.
The passion that tips the scale is the passion to hang endless posters
one more time, you yet again call a meeting where almost no one shows
up, though they promised. And to be feverishly enthusiastic for those
two people. The passion that actually loves scutwork.
As a communitarian you want to say, "What are the jobs that people
like the worst?" And you find the seduction so that people love
them. That is passion.
I represent extreme bias: mostly my own experience as a crazed person.
I think I can say that I have spent my entire 50 years exploring
passion and persistence in other people as well. I'll list some
pointers:
- Ground yourself in missions of higher good and service.
In my office and at home I have photos of murdered children, and
children on the day they died of starvation. I have a personal
ritual. I stand in front of those pictures until I am sobbing to
remind myself that in my luxury, right this second, men are taking
pleasure in pure torture. Ground yourself deeply in your mission.
- Unite your mission with your personal, perpetual experience of
the miracle of life. Couple it not with pain and tragedy.
Celebrate and be thankful to be together enough to step out of your
selfish self, giving yourself to others and the world.
- Make it fun! As Emma Goldman said, "If I can't dance, I
don't want to be part of your revolution!" Feel your path as a rich,
varied and uplifting experience. It needn't be my kind of fun--make
it your own brand.
- Persistence is a byproduct of passion. If you see
persistence, passion is at work. To me passion feels like surrender,
a freedom from doubt, a zest for pursuit.
- Try to live as close to your authentic self as you possibly
can. As a friend of mine says, "Do what you want to do." "It's
redundant to say 'authentic self' because self is authentic." Say
what's on your mind--that day. No more lag time for perspective. No
more sacrifice.
- Find creativity in every act, and do not sacrifice your need to
e creative. Creativity is one of the greatest medicines ever.
Exercise it int he way you wash dishes, in the way you walk down the
street, and in the way you make art. Creativity is essential
nourishment. It is not a cute thing to add to your community, nor a
luxury, as our government implies. It is the very soul of our sense
of self worth.
- Responsibility, sacrifice, struggle, and whining hurt passion,
each in their own way. They are horrible reasons to move yourself
forward. There's a very good chance if you are motivated by a sense
of responsibility, sacrifice and struggle that you will grow to blame
the object of your passion as an excuse for it's not happening, or for
your pain, frustration, or disappointment.
- Passion is not a final product, like world peace. Passion is
the name of the process. This confusion is one reason so many
people quit passion, or never even join on to a Big Dream. They quit
because achieving the final product is too slow. Certainly the single
tragedy in Gesundheit's work is the loss of great people because it's
taken so long to get out our final product. "How is Gesundheit!
doing?" always implies the final product, rather than the process.
You must feel that passion today, in the process--don't tie it to a
finish line.
- Invite co-travelers, unless you are clearly hermetic.
Co-travelers are the juice. Is there anything in your life more
important than your friends? live your lives that way! Commit
yourself to your friends and colleagues! They are your pillars of
persistence. Acknowledge them, support them, go for the intimacy of
your wildest dreams with every human being you meet. It'll get easy.
- Live the life of an enthusiator. Seduction is my job. I
want all of you working around the clock, every day for the rest of
your life, for your dreams. Not because you're paid to, but because
you can't help it. It's that good.
- Fee the thrill of the quest all the time. Dream the
impossible dream, fight the unrightable wrong... Corny stuff, and the
best.
- See life itself as a break. I'm not a break person. As
Weird Al Yankovich says, "I'll be mellow when I'm dead." I want you
to find so much delight with your co-travelers, so much thrill in the
quest, that a break is an irritation. no if you need a break (and
this is Dr. Adams speaking), I want you to take one THAT DAY. I don't
want you working under stress. The reason there are so few social
activists is that in the history of social activism, it looks like it's
not any fun! It looks like sacrifice, struggle. It looks like
everyone you know in it needs a break. Burnout? You know, we should
be burned out from selfishness, from vacations, from breaks. Life,
your life, needs to be designed so that the idea of a break is an
unwelcome interruption. Until you reach that point, take a break the
day you need it.
- Exercise your wonder, curiosity and imagination at all times.
- Exercise your body. Be physically fit. if you're not, your
community will have to take care of you. In order to be a passionate
worker, if you have a big project, you'd better stay physically fit.
It's going to take a long time! (Unless your project is... dinner.)
Make fitness part of the ethic of your effort. Rest when you need it.
Otherwise spend your time wisely.
- Define success as something achievable. For myself, I
define success as: Did I try? Did I give my time? Did I never give
up? These are all very easy to do. Do not put success in things or
outcomes.
- Don't borrow much money. Over the course of our work trying
to build a free hospital countless people have urged us to borrow
money. The weight of borrowed money can cause you to lose your dream.
- Delight in compromise wherever you can. Have the shortest
possible list of nonnegotiable points. Say, "Sure, I like your way."
- Be cautious about the power your passion brings. Passionate
people are give a lot of power in our society, whether they ask for it
or not. Because we have so little self esteem, such boredom and
loneliness and fear, passion is extremely attractive. Be cautious.
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