Let's all be awesome together

The other day I came across this quote:

"Commencement speakers are always telling young people to follow their passions. Be true to yourself. This is a vision of life that begins with self and ends with self. But people on the road to inner light do not find their vocations by asking, what do I want from life? They ask, what is life asking of me? How can I match my intrinsic talent with one of the world’s deep needs?" ~David Brooks, The Moral Bucket List

I don't feel like I have any particular intrinsic talents. Unless a penchant for punny, nerdy and/or inappropriate jokes counts. (I had to call customer service because I forgot the password to one of my bank accounts. I hardly use it because it's for emergency savings and thankfully I haven't had any emergencies. So the guy is going through all the typical prove your identity questions: last 4 digits of your Social Security Number, mother's maiden name, email address. And then he says, "Ok now I need the answer to the secret question you set up: What is the answer to everything?" and I started laughing. Past me cracks me up. I totally forgot about writing that question. Note: I have since changed the question, in case any would-be identity thieves are also fans of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.)

But Brooks' questions really resonated with me because it's something I've thought about a lot. I never knew what I wanted to be when I grew up. I never felt a passion for any specific profession. I still don't know what life is asking of me. Life is kind of cryptic that way. But the answer that I kept coming back to was this: Awesome. When I grow up I want to be Awesome. Then I thought, Ok, so now what? What does that look like? And I decided I wanted to be a force of honesty and humor and light and love. So that's what I've been trying to do, in my real life and in my little corner of the internet. These are my adventures, my faults, my failures, my little victories, my loves. These are my stories, the lessons I've learned, the good, the bad and the ridiculous. These are my attempts at figuring out this whole being alive thing.

In a world of rampant judgment and hating, I want to be a beacon of understanding and encouragement. There is a proverb, I think it's Swedish, that says "Shared joy is a double joy; shared sorrow is a half sorrow." (Those Swedes know a thing or two about life. And red candy fish.) Let's double our joys and halve our sorrows and triple our hugs. Let's cooperate and build each other up instead of competing and tearing each other down. Let's all be awesome together.

Lyric of the moment: "Keep it up. I know you can. Just keep following the heartlines on your hand..." ~Florence + The Machine "Heartlines"