I can't allow myself to believe that "few" have a passion - I believe if you have a lack of passion, then you're ignorant to the world around you.

Everywhere you turn there are things that could be improved, fixed, wrongs righted, dictators toppled, famine, poverty, racism, sexism, classism, problems that need solving, things to be understood, things to be simplified; things that make everyone's lives safer, more bearable, more comfortable, happier.

If you take a hard look at the world around you and look at ways to apply what you enjoy doing to making people's lives around you better, your passion will come alive.

You underestimate misanthropy. I, for one, have no burning desire to make other people's lives better. My motives are a little more selfish. In part it's because of the world around me; there's too much of it, and I only want to worry about what I can control, not what I can't.

What if making other people's lives makes yours better as a byproduct? Or vice versa - what if by doing things to make your life better they could be applied to make other people's lives better?

Why seek to control anything? Why not exploit it to make everyone's lives better?

Exploiting something out of your control to see it as glass half full instead of glass half empty can be a trial at best for someone to whom you need to point this out.

For example, seeing your neighbor's abandoned, dilapidated house as a chance to start a farm or garden, is not something most people would think of when viewing the housing situation in Detroit. Grace Lee Boggs saw it that way but most do not.

Most of us make a living making someone else's life better one way or another, but for many, it's not the someone else that is the source of passion, but an act instead.

The thing about control is about letting go of perfectionism. If you have an inclination to improve things, you can be overwhelmed by the number of things which could be improved, and it can be demoralizing to see the breadth of it all, and recognizing how little overall impact you, as one person, can have. So you limit your scope. You can't do it all.

Do you enjoy learning?

For it's own sake, not so much any more. Getting things done, and done well - yes, for sure. That often involves research and learning new things to get the right level of quality.

Sure, that makes sense. Does society benefit when you help yourself? Does it matter if your way of doing that starts with "a burning desire to help others" or if you're just thinking of yourself and things you can control? Can I be passionate about myself and would that be so bad?