Passion.  You can't force it.  You either have a burning passion for something or you don't.  I remember the first person I ever met who had it,  and that made a lasting impression on me when I was only 5 years old.  It's funny thinking back, because I have met and known many people over the years but as time passes I can scarcely recall anything about them, if even their names.

It was around 1965 and Leslie (Lester) Bangs, who as an adult went on to be known as "America's greatest art critic" writing for Rolling Stone and Creem Magazine, was an older teenager, and even then he was obsessively passionate about music.  My parents knew his mother Norma, and my older brother and I were young kids, but hanging out with Leslie even for a brief while made a lasting impression.  

The adults were visiting and we were in his room, I remember seeing lots of record albums, and his intense enthusiasm when he immediately started to play us kids some music that he loved, obviously wanting to share it with anyone who would listen.  And that was it. Not much interaction at all, but a lasting impression, and the only reason I can figure is most people didn't show that much passion for anything, and he really had it.

 It struck me just the other day when watching the movie "Almost Famous" with my daughter.  With a cast that are now mostly famous, Philip Seymour Hoffman played Lester Bangs.   I wondered, why do I remember that brief visit so well after all of these years, and the thing that stands out is that he was so passionate about the music, and sharing it with us.  Most teenage boys would not have cared to pay any attention to a couple of little kids, but he didn't seem to be able to hold his enthusiasm back.

Meeting Leslie Bangs was, in my life,  a brief and technically insignificant event, but because he couldn't help sharing his intense passion for music, it made a lasting impression.  I just thought that was interesting.