Ayn Rand’s The Fountainhead has been on my list for at least six months, but between CIT and the crazy Peruvian literature I’ve been reading, it’s stayed exactly there- on my list. I started it this week, however, with the hopes of rediscovering my favorite way to relax. So far it’s everything I hoped it would be. I’m glad to have something fun to do on my combi rides. Not only fun, really, but provokingly interesting as well. Take this quote, for instance, that I came across in the first chapters of the book.

Men hate passion, any great passion. Henry Cameron made a mistake: he loved his work. That was why he fought. That was why he lost.

Ayn Rand is unashamedly opinionated in a beautiful way. Being a woman of deep passions, I found this quote particularly relevant. But do I agree with it? I’m not sure yet. It is true that some men hate passion. They don’t want to see people who believe something fiercely or love something with a zealous craze. It’s intimidating I guess, and it makes them think, something many people don’t have any interest in doing.

There are others, however, who want to do just that and for whom passion is an attractive alternative to the doldrums of the suburbs. There are men and women from every nation of the world who live passionately and others who are yet searching for an object or cause worthy of their passions. No, I don’t think I’m going to lose this fight-- for a number of reasons, not least of which is that a desire to live passionately is written into our very souls and can only be stopped by an ongoing anesthetizing overdose of materialism, mundane work, and success. I for one intend to forgo the anesthesia, live boldly, and invite all the seekers I encounter to join in a life worth living.

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