A Passionate Hope That Endures

While I was growing up, my mom had a job that provided her with extraordinary employee benefits to support her children’s education. As the beneficiary of those job perks, I could not be more grateful for something I received in life but did little to earn other than be studious. 

Providing a college education for her children was my mom’s dream. It was a dream my kid sister and I heard about around the kitchen table every evening when we sat down to do our homework. My mom had started college part-time, but discontinued after becoming pregnant with me. My dad, on the other hand, went to night school when my sister and I were toddlers. Both of my parents were determined that their children would have a better future with fewer hardships than they had. Naturally, this came at a cost.

For my mom, she found herself in a work environment that a Human Resources Department today would label as toxic and abusive. I saw then, and I see now, the toll those conditions took on her. But she would tell you she would not change a thing because she had a laser focus on her kids — she had passion for the possible. 

When I first read Søren Kierkegaard’s quote that hope “is passion for the possible,” I thought he meant conviction, zest, or that heart-racing passion which fills the pages of romance novels. But a passion for what is possible goes far beyond zeal.

A passion for the possible asks you to consider this: what are you willing to endure for a better tomorrow?

Passion comes from the Latin word pati which means to “suffer or endure.” A passion for the possible, as Kierkegaard frames it, is asking you to consider this: what are you willing to endure for a better tomorrow? The answer to this question is not on the other side of a problem or somewhere else. It is not a question that can be delayed by saying once I overcome this adversity, I’ll know what to do. Instead, the answer to the question is found in the life you are living — it is found in your hopes for your children and other people’s children, what you observe and give witness to in your life, in your adversities and triumphs, and in your core values. 

When you attune to your specific place and time, you discover your passionate purpose. Purpose, as Br. David Steindl-Rast defines it, is the work you are called to do right now. This work is not your work to do forever and it will change throughout your life. Discovering purpose at this time gives life meaning. This meaning can be found within community, family, relationship, and even a meaningful job. And luckily, there are as many roads to discovering your purpose as there are days in your life because, on any given day, you could be called to passionately respond to what is occurring around you. 

Purpose is an interesting aspect of life, though. It can be elusive if you search for it in work that is meaninglessly ambitious or do so with a greedy heart, but purpose can be abundant when you live with intention — when you are grounded in the good things, the value-driven things, that you are working towards. Living in this passionate way is how you recognize that every step is a step in the direction of possibility. This is what my folks understood in their laser focus pursuit of education for their children, a value many parents in the 1980’s prioritized. Their willingness to endure difficulties and make sacrifices was driven by their passion for putting their kids on a path they believe would be met by many opportunities.

While our passion for the possible can be lofty in principle, it remains humble when we are grounded and attuned to our specific place and time in the world. Wherever we are and whatever we are doing, it is certain that life will invite us to respond to the those around us with generosity and kindness, tenderness and passion. Life’s invitation is simple: tune in, discover the work that is ours to do right now, and proceed with a passion for the possible. 

Photo by Jeremy Bishop

Joe Primo, Grateful Living

Joe Primo is the CEO of Grateful Living. He is a passionate speaker and community-builder whose accomplishments made him a leading voice on resilience and adversity. Gratefulness for life, he believes, is foundational to discovering meaning and the only response that is big enough and appropriate for the plot twists, delights, surprises, and devastation we encounter along the way. A student of our founder since his studies at Yale Divinity School, Joe is committed to advancing our global movement and making the transformational practice of grateful living both accessible to all and integral to communities and places of belonging. His TED talk, “Grief is Good,” reframed the grief paradigm as a responsive resource. He is the author of “What Do We Tell the Children? Talking to Kids About Death and Dying” and numerous articles.

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