A sense of purpose

I’ve been listening to the audiobook: “Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us” today.  It suggests a societal shift in our work has led to a corresponding shift in what motivates us.  It’s a shift away from maximizing profits toward maximizing purpose.  Harkening back to past presidents, he suggests that there presidential purpose can usually be described in a sentence or two (Abraham Lincoln ended slavery, FDR lifted us out of the depression and won a world war, etc.).  He asks, “what is your sentence?”

I immediately thought of my sentence, “She brushed her teeth at farmers markets.”  You laugh, or at least I hope you did, but I seriously think that’s what people are going to remember about me.

I related with the book on this point though: I need a purpose driven work life (not just good oral hygiene).  I left a world of solid middle class to one of filthy hands and sore backs and a small living, but one that is filled to the brim with purpose. And that purpose is nourishing you.  You are my purpose. You are the reason I get up every morning.  I hope my sentence is actually, “She nourished her community.”