I don't have the answers yet, but I have learned enough to be dangerous, and ask better questions..

ScaryFairy's thinking on passion spurred my own thought in this area.

Maybe what the world needs, instead of more passion, is a big ol' whopping double-decker super-sized helping of COMpassion. (I might be a little hungry, physically AND metaphorically myself here....)

You know, whenever I am having a really hard time with someone for whatever reason, I stop whatever I am doing and I just try to find compassion for them, and whatever is happening with them. This works notably less well in traffic situations, but I still try. Usually, I find that when I really reach for where they are, really work to find them and compassion for them, some amazing piece of the puzzle gets revealed and I can see why they acted as they did. Moreover, it will make perfect sense to me, even though I may still dislike it intensely.

It's almost like forgiveness - you try that one much? If you really struggle in your heart to forgive someone, and you really manage it, you will (or at least I do) get this amazing window opened up before you where you can see what drove them to do what they did. Maybe they didn't make the best choice in the situation, or maybe they did, but sometimes there were circumstances forcing the situation that you couldn't see until you chose to forgive.

I work on this a lot, especially on the film set where large egos fiercely defend small fragile self's, and I am maybe about 32% successful at practicing compassion and forgiving. But I am willing to keep trying because judgement is what kills love, and love is what we really need most in this world.

The Buddist monk Thich Nacht Thanh said, of this war in Iraq, your children are beautiful.

But their children are beautiful too.

And we need to think like this always. It's not us and them. It's we, and at the end of the day, we all want love in our lives, a roof over our heads, good schools for our children, fulfilling work for ourselves, and a bit of prosperity. So how to hate someone who wants the same thing you do?

This is where passion destroys, but compassion saves.