RE: Follow Your Passions! And... Just WHY Should We Do That?
Passion for doing something is important for deriving more meaning in life. But there are also "higher consciousness" things that give great meaning as well, but can be troubling or hard to get into, like a pursuit of truth for our own betterment and the betterment of everyone. I am getting back into that more "impersonal" aspect of my life, after I pursued development of my personal life that I ignored for so many years in favor of devotion to truth. Getting involved in a romantic relationship is a great passion to have as well :) heheh.
I was passionate about truth for a decade, and finally made money on Steemit from it, earning my way up in popularity, only to have the time I built earning my way to the top taken from me as a I stood my ground for principles of fair and honest behavior on Steemit about allowing people to build their brand and earn their way. Sometimes fighting for your passion backfires in an unjust system that allows wrong-actions without consequence, and only you suffer for trying to keep what you earned (reputation, status, popularity, etc.).
Going with the flow of the majority, not rocking the boat, going along to get along, can often get you ahead of others who stand for more principled and just ways of doing things. I learned what happens here when you take on the wrong-actions of the powerful rich users that most people blindly support for various reasons.
Follow your passion, but know that other people might not like you for the success you garner as a result of being appreciated for what you do. Sometimes we need to let go of one passion to allow room for another, as I did with a personal relationship, which I'm happier for doing :) And that also includes letting more care for truth into our lives as a form of passion, rather than only focusing on personal passions of various kinds.
I could say SO much about this, but I'll try to keep in manageable.
I know you worked hard to be heard concerning freedoms and people's rights to fair and equitable treatment in this community and some simply would not have it that way. It's an illustration of one of the things about humanity that has always concerned me: a significant-- if not majority-- segment of the population are more concerned with personal gain than taking "right action." And when that is challenged, it becomes more important to them to be right than to be just and fair.
Those particular territorial skirmishes continue, of course. Somehow, they seem to fade more and more as the user base grows; new large investors come in and shrink the relative weight of the "old" players. In spite of its possibly idealistic roots, Steemit emulates life, complete with all the "characters" we find out and about. Inequity and unfairness continues...
It makes me happy to hear your relationship is bringing you a measure of passion/happiness/contentment; it's something that's hard to place a value on. But I do, and quite highly... having worked through several dead ends and personal issues detrimental to solid relationships before my wife and I reconnected (we knew each other as kids) in 2003.
Here is an image/text from facebook I just came across, it partly says what I was saying in the above comment regarding higher consciousness passions: