La pasiรณn no es una, sino dos bestias con la misma piel, y es que una nos levanta, la otra nos entierra. Y lo peor no es que existan, lo peor es que se parecen tanto que a veces no sabemos cuรกl estamos alimentando hasta que ya es tarde. Porque la pasiรณn positiva โesa que nos hace levantar a las cinco de la maรฑana no por obligaciรณn sino por devociรณn, la que convierte el trabajo en oficio y el oficio en arte...โ es un fuego que calienta sin quemar โyo lo he vividoโ. Es la que tuvo Gabriel Garcรญa Mรกrquez cuando escribiรณ Cien aรฑos de soledad โespero la hayas leรญdoโ encerrado en un cuarto sin ventana โen serioโ, porque la historia le ardรญa en las manos y tenรญa que sacarla. Esa pasiรณn no pide nada a cambio mรกs que la libertad de existir โmuchos en HIVE lo loigranโ.
Pero luego estรก la otra โterribleโ, la que se disfraza de amor y te dice "te quiero tanto que no puedo vivir sin ti", y en realidad lo que estรก diciendo es "te necesito tanto que no puedo dejarte vivir" โinteresante dualidad, ยฟno lo creen?โ. Esa pasiรณn negativa no construye, nos posee; no libera, nos ata. Y aquรญ es donde hay que poner los puntos sobre las รญes, porque confundimos tรฉrminos como si fueran sinรณnimos cuando en realidad son escalones de una misma escalera que puede subirnos al cielo o bajarnos al mismรญsimo infierno.
El deseo es hambre โy puntoโ; no es malo, no es bueno, es hormonal, biolรณgico. Nos atrae lo que brilla, lo que escasea, lo que parece prohibido. Pero el deseo solo no sostiene nada, se satisface o se pudre. La admiraciรณn ya es otra cosa โojoโ, es reconocer en el otro algo a quiรฉn tรบ valoras, tiene ese algo que nos inspira. Pero cuidado, porque la admiraciรณn puede convertirse en el espejo de nuestro propio ego, pues admiramos no por quien es el otro, sino por cรณmo nos hace sentir al admirarlo. "Se puede admirar sin amor, pero no se puede amar sin admiraciรณn" โparece un trabalenguas, pero no lo es...โ, y cuando olvidamos esa diferencia, empezamos a construir castillos sobre arena.
Y entonces llega la trampa โestoy seguro de que muchos la hemos vividoโ, cuando alguien te hace sentir especial no por quien eres, sino por lo que representas para su narrativa. Ahรญ entra la escasez como estrategia, el interรฉs como moneda, y tรบ โnosotrosโ, sin darnos cuenta, empezamos a depender. Porque si lo que nos llena es la presencia del otro y no tu propia capacidad de estar completo y cรณmodo contigo mismo, eso no es amor; es dependencia emocional disfrazada de romanticismo. Si tienes que buscar razones para que te guste alguien โpor ejemploโ, si necesitas hacer una lista de pros y contras, eso no es pasiรณn; es autosugestiรณn, es tu mente tratando de justificar lo que en el corazรณn no siente. Pero si estรกs claro que te gusta, si lo sabes en las entraรฑas, y aรบn asรญ no encuentras la razรณnโฆ eso, eso es amorโฆ o al menos, la รบnica definiciรณn que se acerca a lo real.
Gracias a la IA Qwen3.6-Plus por ilustrar esta publicaciรณn.
Y en medio de este desorden emocional, aparece el "efecto tรญtere". Porque no solo en el amor somos marionetas. Hoy, la mayorรญa de nosotros โlo queramos aceptar o noโ somos manejados por hilos invisibles. No hace falta un villano con bigote retorciรฉndose las manos; basta con un algoritmo que sabe quรฉ te duele, quรฉ te enoja, quรฉ te hace comprar. Basta con un discurso polรญtico que te dice quiรฉn es tu enemigo, con una publicidad que te dice quรฉ te falta para ser feliz. Como decรญa Erich Fromm: "El amor maduro dice: 'Te necesito porque te amo'", no al revรฉs. Pero el sistema nos vende lo contrario: nos hace creer que necesitamos poseer para amar, controlar para estar seguros, consumir para existir.
En Latinoamรฉrica sabemos de eso โasรญ hayamos emigradoโ. Sabemos de pasiones que queman pueblos, de lรญderes que se convierten en รญdolos y luego en verdugos, de amores que matan porque confunden entrega con sumisiรณn. Rubรฉn Blades lo cantรณ claro: **"Amor y control no pueden ir de la mano". Porque cuando el amor se vuelve posesiรณn, deja de ser amor y se convierte en prisiรณn. Y la prisiรณn mรกs cruel es aquella en la que el prisionero cree que es libre.
Mijaรญl Bakunin lo dijo sin pelos en la lengua: "La pasiรณn por la destrucciรณn es tambiรฉn la pasiรณn creativa". Y tiene razรณn, pero con un matiz: la pasiรณn creativa destruye lo viejo para construir algo nuevo; la pasiรณn destructiva destruye para quedarse con las cenizas. Una libera, la otra esclaviza. Y la lรญnea entre ambas es tan fina que a veces solo la ves del otro lado cuando ya la cruzaste.
Por eso hay que preguntarse: ยฟa quรฉ le estรกs entregando tu alma? ยฟA algo que te hace crecer o a algo que te hace pequeรฑo? ยฟA una causa que te trasciende o a una persona que te reduce? Porque la pasiรณn positiva no te pide que te anules, te pide que te expandas. La negativa, en cambio, te dice "sin mรญ no eres nada", y tรบ, en tu miedo a la soledad, le crees.
Octavio Paz lo escribiรณ con esa claridad que solo tienen los poetas: "Vivir bien exige morir bien. Tenemos que aprender a mirar de frente a la muerte". Y yo agregarรญa: amar bien exige soltar bien. Porque el amor que necesita retener no es amor, es miedo. Y la pasiรณn que necesita destruir no es pasiรณn, es vacรญo.
La pregunta no es si sentimos pasiรณn, la pregunta que debemos hacernos es: ยฟquiรฉn lleva las riendas? ยฟTรบ, o el hilo invisible que alguien mรกs estรก jalando? Porque en este teatro de marionetas que llamamos vida, la รบnica rebeldรญa real es cortar las cuerdas y bailar nuevamente "el chachachรก" (
"El amor es un sentimiento que sรณlo puede nacer ante un ser libre, que puede darnos o retirarnos su presencia". Y si no es libre, definitivamente no es amor; es otra cosa. Y esa otra cosa, amiga, amigo que me lees, es la que nos tiene a todos bailando como tรญteres, creyendo que elegimos el paso cuando solo seguimos la mรบsica que alguien mรกs puso a sonar.
Creciendo como persona, busca y encuentra lo que necesitas para ser un mejor humano en la Comunidad Holos&Lotus. De seguro, hay un tema que te llamarรก la atenciรณn.
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Passion isn't one thing, but two beasts in the same skin; one lifts us up, the other buries us. And the worst part isn't that they exist, it's that they're so similar that sometimes we don't know which one we're nurturing until it's too late. Because positive passion โthe kind that makes us get up at five in the morning not out of obligation but out of devotion, the kind that transforms work into a craft and craft into artโ is a fire that warms without burning โI've experienced it. It's the kind Gabriel Garcรญa Mรกrquez had when he wrote One Hundred Years of Solitudeโ I hope you've read it โlocked in a windowless roomโ seriouslyโbecause the story was burning in his hands and he had to get it out. That passion asks for nothing in return but the freedom to existโmany at HIVE achieve it.
But then there's the other one โterribleโ the one that disguises itself as love and tells you, "I love you so much I can't live without you," when what it's really saying is, "I need you so much I can't let you live"โan interesting duality, don't you think? This negative passion doesn't build us up, it possesses us; it doesn't liberate us, it binds us. And this is where we need to dot the i's and cross the t's, because we confuse terms as if they were synonyms when in reality they are rungs on the same ladder that can take us to heaven or down to the very depths of hell.
Desire is hunger โperiodโ; it's not bad, it's not good, it's hormonal, biological. We are attracted to what shines, what is scarce, what seems forbidden. But desire alone doesn't sustain anything; it is either satisfied or rots away. Admiration is something else entirely โpay attentionโ it's recognizing in the other person something you value, something that inspires you. But beware, because admiration can become a reflection of our own ego. We admire not for who the other person is, but for how they make us feel when we admire them. "You can admire without love, but you can't love without admiration" โit sounds like a tongue twister, but it isn'tโ, and when we forget that difference, we start building castles in the sand.
And then comes the trap โI'm sure many of us have experienced itโ when someone makes you feel special not for who you are, but for what you represent in their narrative. That's where scarcity comes in as a strategy, self-interest as currency, and you โweโ without realizing it, begin to depend. Because if what fulfills us is the presence of the other person and not our own capacity to be whole and comfortable with ourselves, that's not love; it's emotional dependence disguised as romance. If you have to find reasons to like someone โfor exampleโ, if you need to make a list of pros and cons, that's not passion; it's self-suggestion, it's your mind trying to justify what your heart doesn't feel. But if you're clear that you like them, if you know it in your gut, and yet you still can't find the reasonโฆ that, that's loveโฆ or at least, the only definition that comes close to reality.
Thanks to the Qwen3.6-Plus AI for illustrating this publication.
And in the midst of this emotional turmoil, the "puppet effect" appears. Because we're not only puppets in love. Today, most of us โwhether we want to accept it or notโ are manipulated by invisible strings. We don't need a villain with a mustache wringing his hands; an algorithm that knows what hurts you, what angers you, what makes you buy is enough. A political speech that tells you who your enemy is is enough, advertising that tells you what you lack to be happy. As Erich Fromm said: "Mature love says: 'I need you because I love you,'", not the other way around. But the system sells us the opposite: it makes us believe that we need to possess in order to love, to control in order to be safe, to consume in order to exist.
In Latin America, we know this all too wellโeven though we have emigrated. We know of passions that burn towns, of leaders who become idols and then executioners, of loves that kill because they confuse surrender with submission. Rubรฉn Blades sang it clearly: "Love and control cannot go hand in hand." Because when love becomes possession, it ceases to be love and becomes a prison. And the cruelest prison is the one in which the prisoner believes he is free.
Mikhail Bakunin said it bluntly: "The passion for destruction is also the creative passion." And he is right, but with a nuance: the creative passion destroys the old to build something new; the destructive passion destroys to be left with the ashes. One liberates, the other enslaves. And the line between the two is so fine that sometimes you only see it from the other side once you've already crossed it.
That's why you have to ask yourself: What are you giving your soul to? To something that makes you grow or something that makes you small? To a cause that transcends you or to a person who diminishes you? Because positive passion doesn't ask you to erase yourself, it asks you to expand. Negative passion, on the other hand, tells you, "without me you are nothing", and you, in your fear of loneliness, believe it.
Octavio Paz wrote it with that clarity only poets possess: "To live well demands to die well. We must learn to look death in the face." And I would add: to love well demands to let go well. Because love that needs to hold on isn't love, it's fear. And passion that needs to destroy isn't passion, it's emptiness.
The question isn't whether we feel passion, the question we must ask ourselves is: who's holding the reins? You, or the invisible string someone else is pulling? Because in this puppet show we call life, the only real rebellion is to cut the strings and dance the cha-cha-cha again (
"Love is a feeling that can only be born in the presence of a free being, who can give us or withdraw their presence". And if that being isn't free, it's definitely not love; it's something else. And that something else, my friend, is what has us all dancing like puppets, believing we choose the steps when we're only following the music someone else started playing.
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