Purpose. Truth be told, I think it’s what we’re all striving to find and achieve. In setting a course in life, we often conflate purpose with passion, but purpose is the selfless and external-facing iteration of passion. Purpose involves capitalizing on your talents and passions for a reason beyond yourself.
Tonight, we watched Dumplin on Netflix. As happens, it spiraled into an evening of Googling, which landed me on YouTube watching video after video of Dolly Parton, the heartbeat of the movie. As one of the countless odd coincidences in life that I’ve stopped trying to understand, I learned this week at our Chicago Literacy Alliance confab that Dolly’s Imagination Library is partnering with Open Books to deliver books to children here in Chicago. Dolly has already delivered over 110 MILLION books to children. Her talents and passion might be singing and songwriting, but it has delivered her to her purpose of supporting literacy. Go figure.