What's My Word?

Let me start this exercise in self indulgence by saying that I'm not a fan of Blogs. I've never been one to keep a journal for more than a month, nor had that much to say each day to fill an active on-line rant. I'm more likely to have a conversation with myself than others, and who cares what I'm saying to myself?

So here's the deal: I'm going to start this Blog with one entry and leave it to those who care to comment to create the content. I am interested in reading what others think about this exercise, which I'll tell you about shortly. Perhaps this is better suited to a discussion forum, but hey, Blogger is free and visible, so have at it.

What's the story? A friend asked me to think about what my word was. My word? Yes, my word. She said, if you had to choose a word under which you could talk about who you are, what you do and are passionate about, what would that word be? Now my first reaction was how dare anyone think I or anyone else could be reduced to a single word. But I have to say, reductionism aside, I was intrigued. I asked her what her word was. Abundance. She went on to say why, and I was more intrigued. I'll leave out the why's and simply note that she called it an umbrella word.

I started flipping through the pages of my mental dictionary to pick a word. This was no simple exercise. The stakes were huge. After all, this could become the tag-line under a mug shot of me on some poster in a public building. An umbrella word under which all that's me comfortably fits? Daunting.

So what's my word? I hestitate to say. I don't want to prejudice your thinking about this, about what your word is. But I told you about abundance, and I'm going to ask you to think about what your word is, so in fairness I ought to tell you what mine is. Connections. Not bad. Now here's the kicker, why connections? Well, I work in an area of telecommunications and that's about connecting things together. I also like connecting people with information in which I think they'll have an interest. And I like connecting people with each other: "you really ought to meet ...." Finally, I like playing with words and connecting them in different ways (a closet poet, if you must know.) So that's it; connections.

Now it's your turn. What's your word? Why is it your word? And what do you love and hate about doing this? Self discovery? Self indulgence? Madison Avenue gone nuts? Add your thoughts in the comments and let's start the discussion.

GE