Something else I meant to bring up

A few of the blogs I regularly read have had a similar theme this week: what are you all about?

"The Happiness Project" mentioned having a totem, or talisman, or symbol which epitomizes us. The author chose a bluebird, which to her symbolizes happiness, and that's what she is all about. Then she asks, what is your personal totem?

"Follow Lingling as She Gives Lymphoma a Beatdown" had a post about a ring with a word on it-- one word which epitomizes the author's goal, mission, worldview. He chose "story", as he is a writer and believes "life should be something worth writing about." Then he asks, what word would you choose?

The Ask Metafilter featured a question from an artist who is launching a website but whose name is frequently misspelled. This could be problematic, she said, as the misspellers might not find the correct website when searching. One helpful poster mentioned branding (as in Kellogg's, WalMart, Eddie Bauer, not like what you do to cattle)-- creating sort of a logo, an image, a brand name for oneself. Which I'm sort of doing right now for my little business-- trying to come up with a logo which includes the name of my little business and also reflects the feeling of it as well. (An aside: fonts are particularly significant here-- a typewriter font conjures up feelings of formality and old-fashioned-ness, while a scripty font can give an air of Victorian fussiness... neither of which are me. Currently I'm stuck on the sweet script of the font used in the title of Bluelines magazine (created by none other than Martha Stewart, or at least her posse) which I found online for $39.95. It's an interesting exercise to try to find a font that captures the essence of my creations. More difficult than you might think.)

I've been inspired by these and a few other instances in which we simplify our goal, our worldview, our essence, into a word, or an object, or a picture, or a song (think Bridget Jones' Diary-- what is your theme song?). True, I vascillate between liking the simplicity of this sort of thing and hating being put in a box. But vascillating sounds like oscillating, which means going back and forth, and that's allowed. So I think for the near future I'll be doing a little light soul-searching: what am I all about right now? I know that creating is immensely fulfilling for me-- cooking, sewing, designing, even creating a good lecture on Composite Functions and Their Domains was a joy. I also know that my life is all about freedom, and really, I think, all of life on earth for believers should be about living in freedom, shaking off the ties and lies that bind us to hurtful living (hurtful to us, and hurtful to others). And the word truth ties in there as well. It could make for a very large ring... Create, Freedom, Truth...

I'll do the same thing those other blog authors did-- do you have a simplified personal word or symbol? Have you created a succinct mission statement for you or your family?