Does enthusiasm exist in a vacuum?

I remember being heart-poundingly consumed with Ayn Rand's novel The Fountainhead and the contemplation of Rand's philosophy of "selfishness" when I read the famous book many years ago. Published in 1943, The Fountainhead, and her other tour de force, Atlas Shrugged, published in 1957, continue to sell enough copies EVERY SINGLE YEAR to land them on bestseller lists, according to an article I read recently. I have wondered if I would be as engaged in these books and Rand's writings were I to read them now, decades later.

I may have my answer. I am currently reading the biography Ayn Rand And The World She Made by Anne C. Heller, and am  spellbound. Ayn Rand's life and philosophy is captured here with an vitality and breadth by Heller that I find truly jawdropping. I am consumed once again.

Where does the enthusiasm question fit in? I want to enthuse on the thoughts and ideas this book about Ayn Rand generates, about related beliefs, experiences, the history of our country, the history of our world, politics in general, but I don't know who to enthuse to! I would overwhelm anyone who is not a Rand fan, and while I may know other Rand fans, I don't know that I know them, so I read and keep my excitement to myself. But with my enthusiasm locked inside, with no one to volley with, to bubble and expound, question and exchange thoughts, the result feels like the very antithesis of enthusiasm!

The definition of enthusiasm is great or fervent excitement, so apparently enthusiasm does exist in a vacuum.

But I'm not keeping my enthusiasm for my newest story,Under A Halloween Moon, to myself.  Release date today!  Check it out, by Beverly Breton, at www.thewildrosepress.com