Great writing is fueled by passion. It's not just about organizing content and resources so they can be found; I believe the essence of connecting with people is to find the core emotional themes that matter--to identify what makes the content not only relevant and interesting, but necessary from a writer's perspective. We must identify the source of inspiration and honor it in all we write or our writing becomes nothing more than data.

The categories I described a few days ago are based on fundamental values and feelings. What matters is not the assemblage of facts--it has all been done before and anyone who knows how to use Google can probably find it. This is what matters:

• Sustainability - Eating local produce feels right. Spending $20,000 to give a goose chemotherapy feels wrong. These days, sustainability is most often expressed in the context of "green living," but it's based on values of generational responsibility, stewardship and an abhorrence of waste. In positive acts, we commit to live our lives in ways that make the world a better place and set an example for our children. In the negative, while we risk being elitist and judgmental, justice demands we hold those who commit waste accountable.
• Parenting - The hardest part of parenting is not lack of knowledge, experience, or even stamina, but the difficulty of recognizing you are not as great as you thought you were. I love the life we are creating with our kids, but when my 2-year old son is pitching a tantrum...sometimes, we must just accept the moment and pray for time to move past this stage. Privately, we share our feelings of anger and frustration and other parents admit they feel the same but we say to ourselves, "how can I feel this way?" We are ashamed of our anger--even as we do nothing to harm our children, we feel the sin in our hearts and the desperate loneliness of failure and defeat in a moment...but the moment passes...we survive...and we make it through. We forget and move on. I want this site to share honestly in order that other parents may recognize they are not alone, they are not failures or monsters, and help them through the difficult times.
• Community - The most exciting thing for me as I started a town blog and got involved in local projects was the feeling of becoming a participant and a voice that mattered. Not everyone is going to find a "cause" to pursue, but I think we all want to belong. If we are new to town or work away from where we live, it is easy to feel disconnected and not know where to start. How we find our community is part of everyone's life journey. It's not just a checklist of civic activities--it is a part of belonging.
• Active - The key to sustained involvement in an active lifestyle is finding the joy in running, cycling, hiking in nature--whatever works for you. I remain amazed at how listening to a podcast sparked my interest in fixed gear bikes or how, when I was training for my first marathon, I could get up at 4am and run for 2 hours in the darkness. In isolation, the activity means nothing. But finding a passion gives epic feeling to what others see as mere exercise.
• Career - It's not about success. Many are passionate in their careers and some are passionate about their career/professional development. But the thing that drives me is a question of what role my career plays in my life? I am not only in search of a purposeful career; I want to live well. These is no magic choice, no perfect job that will ever allow me to "check off" career as done. Workaholism is failure at life--to believe you can find total personal fulfillment in a career results in perpetual job dissatisfaction.

This essay is mostly an exercise for myself, but it is a stake in the ground as to why I want the site to address these particular categories.

When we need to return to basic principles, to remember why we are writing, the words of William Faulkner echo to us from nearly 60 years ago:

I believe that man will not merely endure: he will prevail. He is immortal, not because he alone among creatures has an inexhaustible voice, but because he has a soul, a spirit capable of compassion and sacrifice and endurance. The poet's, the writer's, duty is to write about these things. It is his privilege to help man endure by lifting his heart, by reminding him of the courage and honor and hope and pride and compassion and pity and sacrifice which have been the glory of his past. The poet's voice need not merely be the record of man, it can be one of the props, the pillars to help him endure and prevail.