The Passion of Christopher Lydon

To those of us who have been fond of Christopher Lydon for years there is one thing you can’t miss about him – he really, really, really likes people, in all their idiosyncracies and strangeness. Listening to his “Passion Week” broadcasts on NPR’s Open Source this week, I was reminded of how wonderfully refreshing it is to be in the presence – if only over the airwaves – of someone who likes what he is doing. I used to think that about Charles Kuralt, too, when he was the host of Sunday Mornings and On the Road with.... I always watched and loved the way he loved the goofiness and peculiarities of the people he interviewed. It’s a beautiful thing to behold.

Christopher Lydon’s “Passion” programs have paid homage to those in the world who just totally love something – knitting, birding, candy, cookbooks... the list goes on. As I listen to the programs I am recognizing a bit of myself in all of them and I think that is a good thing. As Diane Keaton says, “I like that about me.” If you look up the definition of “passion” it derives from a Middle English word meaning “to suffer”. That’s depressing. The word “passion” evolved from the notion of suffering under one’s desire for something – or someone. But over time it has evolved to mean something more akin to enthusiasm, one of my favorite words. It derives from “en theos” or “the God inside”.

So what are all these passions and what is the point of them. Basically, what I have decided after listening to four of these programs now, that passions are a way of taking total joy in something and allowing your life to become richer and more full through that passion. I can certainly speak to the passion for knitting. For me knitting is multi-dimensional, as I said yesterday. It is meditation, relaxation, centering, creative, and connects me to others who share my passion.

Last night the program was A Passion for Birding. Though not a passionate bird-watcher, I am an appreciator of passionate bird-watchers. My friend Jim Barber has taught me about that. Jim is a guy who has a hell of a story to tell about his life and birding, his total love of birding, has helped him change that life. When I met Jim I knew very little about birds and, over the years, through emails and his wonderful message board, For the Birds, I’ve learned a lot. I would shoot him an email: “Hey, Jim, there’s a funny looking bird at my feeder, it looks like...” and he would shoot back an email: “Sounds like a Downy Woodpecker” accompanied by a confirming photograph. Jim is the organizer of the annual Cape Ann Christmas Bird Count – you can read all about it on his board.

A Passion for Cookbooks was wonderful, largely because I have at least a hundred of them, once wrote one, and, like Jane Kramer who Lydon interviewed, read them like I would any other book, whether I plan to cook anything or not. Kramer does something that I find remarkable. She selects a cookbook and then cooks her way through it until she has made all the recipes in it that intrigue her. She has cooked her way through Paul Prudhomme and much of Julia Child among others. Now that’s passion!

I haven’t heard The Passion for Perfect Clothing program but I can certainly expand on that by confessing to a passion for luscious fabrics in beautiful colors. I may just wear sweatshirts and drawstring trousers much of the time but the sweatshirts are made of creamy, soft cashmere and the trousers are silk. I sew to savor my passion for fine fabrics.

Passion is a beautiful thing. It makes the world a much more interesting and delicious place. I’m so grateful to Christopher Lydon for allowing his passion for human idiosyncracies to create this series.

Thanks for reading.