I’ve spent the past few years thinking a lot about who I am and what I was made to do. It’s been a long journey, fraught with anxiety, self-doubt and confusion. I’ve traversed the desert of darkness and despair, have had to question whether or not I have a purpose, if I was meant to be a writer or if my art is just the accidental by-product of genes, passed on through countless generations, heralds of random chance and a fundamentally chaotic universe.
By attempting to comprehend my existence and its reason for being, I’ve come to a much fuller understanding of what it is I’m supposed to do.
It’s my sincere hope, of course, that everything I write will entertain and delight you, my readers. I want to make you happy. In a world filled with anxiety and despair, I want to give you leisure and rest.
But there’s more.
There are things I wish to communicate, themes that have surfaced over and over again as I’ve plumbed the depths of my imagination. Everything I write, while intended to entertain, also serves a higher purpose. What follows are three things I hope to accomplish as a writer.
1. To explore the entire spectrum of the human experience.
What motivates people to do what they do? Why do they feel a certain way? How do people react to the actions of others? These are just a few of the questions that fascinate me, questions that have set me on a path of exploration that’s taken me deep into the heart of humanity.
We are a species rich with depth and complexity. There are no simple answers; every question is answered by another question. Yet in the neverending process of asking new questions, we come to a fuller understanding of ourselves.
2. To discern and articulate the extraordinary that hides in the shadow of the ordinary.
As humans, we’re easily distracted by the everyday tedium of our existence. We lose ourselves in routine, becoming so absorbed in the doings of the world that we fail to see what lies beyond the surface.
I believe that beyond the thin veil of the ordinary lies something much more wondrous and strange than any of us could possibly imagine. I believe that once we train ourselves to see the world as something more, the cardboard superficiality of our dull surface-existence falls away to something much more rich and mysterious.
3. To demonstrate that life has meaning, that all of us have a purpose.
I firmly believe that existence has meaning. I will always believe it, no matter how confused I become, no matter how many times others may argue to the contrary. In the vastness of the cosmos, we are not alone. Each of us has been given a mission, some task to perform in love for the benefit of the human family.
Simply by being who I am and by writing what I discover hidden within my soul, I hope to convey this message to others, to give hope where so many have fallen to despair. I wish to show the universe for what it is, a cosmic framework in which everyone and everything are interconnected for an everlasting good that was made to be shared.
How about you? What’s your mission?
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(Sorry – I hit ‘send’ before I finished) I guess my mission statement would be strongly tied up with my faith. I would like it to be to live as my faith teaches me to live. The difficulty I have with that is that I don’t fully understand Christianity. I am told general sweeping statements at church but they don’t always apply and no-one tells me what the real rules are. I find it really difficult. I know it’s the autism getting in the way but I can’t change that. So rather than looking for general rules which I can’t figure out perhap I could make a mission statement in a more pratical, everyday way?
Looking at my everyday life I very much want to be an artist – I feel it so strongly it feels like a calling, a vocation and also, quite often, a sanctuary. I guess working with my hands to earn some kind of living is a good thing and for me, my God is the creator, so seeing the beauty of the world and painting it, noticing it, calling attention to it kind of makes me feel closer to Him. I get a huge amount of joy in looking at other people’s artwork – it stirs something inside me which I dont’ understand but which makes me feel whole. I get exactly the same feeling with good books too. I would like to give that gift as well as recieve it.
Hmm, I’m clearly going to have to think some more about this.
Thanks for a super post!
I feel the same way about my writing, that it’s a calling.
I think art is a holy work. As Tolkien put it, it’s an imitation of creation. I believe that part of being made in the image of God is feeling compelled to create things, just like he does. Only in our case, what we create is a reflection of what’s already been created.
Absolutely – what a wonderful way to put it! Your words remind me of part of a wordsworth poem:
“Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting
The Soul that rises with us, our life’s Star,
Hath had elsewhere its setting,
And cometh from afar:
Not in entire forgetfulness,
And not in utter nakedness,
But trailing clouds of glory do we come
From God, who is our home.”
For me I think it is those ‘trailing clouds of glory’ which kind of stamp us with our creator’s mark – leading us to follow His ways and, perhaps, through art made wholeheartedly, to find Him.
You put that very nicely.
I don’t know what my mission statement is but I think it would be really helpful for me personally to think about this some more. I am mildy autistic which makes it difficult to know about my self. Another chap on the Spectrum told me that having a set of core values or a mission statement can help.
I am 28, mother ,employee, wife and student .
I never noticed any depression or anxiety til 25 , things got hard. I meditate, work out and write . search daily for resources and ways to control.
my mother was always unhappy , anti social ways and recently in august at age 45 committed suicide and I am afraid that if I do not find a way to clear my head I will walk in her steps . I joined wordpress this week.
That’s horrible. I’m so sorry. Please don’t choose to same path. Your life is worth a great deal, more than you could ever know. Everything you do touches an innumerable number of other souls, though you may not see or realize. Simply by being who you are, by existing, by interacting even in only small ways, you can and do impact the world in huge ways.
Prayer has helped me through my own depression, and the realization that I’m in this world for a reason and that I’m loved. I pray that you can make peace with your existence, that you can find comfort, happiness and fulfillment.
From the ages of about 18 – 23 I was pretty depressed. I still am quite depressed (31) but I understand now it is just part of who I am. Without it I wouldn’t be me anymore. Now it is just a nasty visitor that I entertain just long enough until it becomes appropriate to show them the door.
I remember contemplating suicide many times and some of the only beacons of light at the end of my tunnel were some very simple things. The next Lord of the Rings film or the next Harry Potter book. I LIVED in those worlds. I took from those characters more than just adventure and escapism. They taught me the basic fundamentals of what it means to be alive and to have purpose.
In the end that is my mission. I want to give back to the others who were like me. One day I might write an amazing tale. That book will end up in a 99 cent bin outside of a used bookstore.
There it will lay tattered and beaten waiting for a young person comes along. This young person will seek comfort in the pages, will learn as I did from the characters and when they are done they will have the strength to carry on. My mission is to make the rope that enables even the most down trodden to pull themselves up into the sunlight from the hole they feel they are in.
We aren’t meant to live in holes. We are people who can be just as extraordinary as the characters we covet if only we are shown the way.
Good post Jeff. I like the cut of your jib sir. 🙂 I like it very much.
Among other things, I also suffer from depression. It’s very difficult sometimes. I agree, we can be as much as we want to be. It doesn’t take a lot, and you don’t have to climb mountains to do it. You’re a hero and a warrior every time you face anxiety or depression, every time you open yourself up to a new experience, every time you grow as a person by trying something new or by doing good for others. Life is an adventure, and even the most ordinary things are extraordinary just beneath the surface.
How do we see beneath the surface I wonder?
When there is such a fog flowing over everything I often think about how to clear it.
What tools are available to a person to do so?
Meditation? Being in the moment? Breathing? Making lists? Manifesting thought forms? Asking the universe for help? Spirit guides? Defining your absolute values (that seem to change with the wind)? What is concrete anyway and from what pivot point do you make decisions? From what place to you give birth to your thought? Dark? Light? Love?
There are these rare moments . You can count these moments on one hand per year. You know these moments. Things are clear. Everything is as it should be. If someone asked you during that 5 minutes or that hour how you feel you could actually not bullshit them and say, “Good. I feel good man.”
There is this constant chase right? There is a relentless pursuit for those moments of clarity between the assault from your mind. I don’t think there is a magic bullet but there has to be some key rocks to kick over inside oneself.