Words To Live By: Passion

I would be remiss if I didn’t start this column out by thanking the Metropolitan Business Association for bestowing upon me the honor of Business Man of the Year. I have a great passion for what we do at Watermark and a great deal of love for the staff and the community we serve. It is an incredible feeling to be recognized for doing something you love to do.

I am a huge fan of events akin to the MBA’s Pride Gala and Watermark’s WAVE Awards, because they draw attention to those in the community that have a great deal of passion. Having passion for your community and channeling that passion into volunteer work or the advancement of others is what I like to call using your powers for good.

Conversely, there is also the phenomenon known as using your powers for evil. This is misdirected passion that most commonly takes the form of Facebook posts.

Admittedly, I’ve had a difficult time “friending” people in the past. I moved around a lot as a kid and that carried over into my early adult life. Someone who was very close to me one day would be someone I would never see again the next day. I never lamented the loss, it was just the way life was. It became easy for me to shrug off any situation and move to the next. As a result I developed somewhat of a reputation as a robot, especially among those I dated (sure, there were a few).

When I started working at Watermark I began to take root in the LGBT community in Orlando and Tampa Bay. I fed off the passion Tom Dyer had for his newspaper and all of the people in its coverage area. Making friends became easier and using passion to do good felt good.

Then Facebook came along.

Talk about making it easy to make friends. Now all I have to do is click a button. It was a beautiful thing. You could connect with people from the past, laughing and sharing inspirational quotes of the day and your favorite cat video.

I don’t put too much stock in Facebook anymore, though. Perhaps unfairly, I equate Facebook to an evil that is destroying society, like I unfairly blamed beer and Taco Bell for my past weight issues. While Facebook can create a community, it can create a false sense of community and privacy. I accept every friend request because I use Facebook mostly to promote Watermark and pugs. I assume people mostly ask to be my friend because they have something to promote. That might make up about 400 people of my friends list. I’ve noticed casting a net this wide can have its problems, especially in an election year.

Want to know what I am talking about? Go to your status and type just one of the next two words: Hillary, Trump. Now read the comments. I posted one article about Hillary Clinton, and some of the comments that followed would make George Carlin blush. I get that some of you aren’t a fan, but is calling her a murdering “c-word” really productive debate?

Lately the friends list seems to fluctuate in number. Thank you, political year! Every day I see posts about who was unfriended, who should be unfriended and who is about to unfriend someone as a final slap in the face. What does it really mean to be unfriended on Facebook anyway? And why are people so bent out of shape when it happens?

Does it mean you can’t talk to that person if you run into them on the street? Does it mean you can’t go to Thanksgiving dinner because your politically mouthy in-law will be there? No. At best it means the person who unfriended you doesn’t want to see your posts anymore. It’s that simple

It seems daunting, the barrage of daily Facebook angst. It’s a necessary tool at times and it does have value, if we let it.

My favorite post came from my little league baseball coach not too long ago. He longed for the good old days when we were polite to those we were acquaintances with. We got together for a purpose and treated each other like humans. We didn’t offer angry opinions about everything, including that which we have no knowledge of.

Until we can unfriend Facebook, can we all agree on one thing? At the risk of sounding like Jerry Springer and Rodney King, let’s use our passions for good. Channel your passion into actions. Vote! Don’t tear each other apart. Your words matter, so choose compassion and virtue. It’s not politically correct to be kind, it’s just the right thing to do. There are families in your community that are hurting and need your help. Help them. You won’t regret it.