For some reason I’m compelled to write this today. I think I just need to remind myself what exactly it is I’m passionate about and I’m bringing you all along for the ride.

I love what I do. There’s not a bit of what I do that I don’t absolutely get a kick out of. From MMM to the stuff that I contribute to MarketingVox – although I miss the freedom I had on AdJab to call “bullshit” loudly and proudly on certain stuff – to the occasional posts on Open the Dialogue to the intentionally asinine updates I put on Twitter. I love the job I have as a new media specialist at MWW Group and thank God every day that I met Tom Biro, who not only got me that job but whose coattails I’ve ridden to many and sundry opportunities, each one more rewarding than the last. Occasionally some of this stuff actually feels like “work” but most of the time it’s so much fun I’m not even noticing. Yes, I’m actually turned on by wikis and talk of search engine optimization. Talk podcasts to me, baby.

I love my family. I’ve got a wife that supports my taking any of those opportunities and who is not only a wonderful partner but also the best mother to our two kids that anyone could ask for. Most of you know the medical situation our youngest – now 3 1/2 – has and she’s right there on top of everything. And my kids are the best. True, the oldest – who’s six – and I go head to head quite a bit but I think that’s just because he and I have similar temperaments and I don’t want him to make the same mistakes I did. I call him on a lot of stuff that I myself am guilty of, but that’s just because like all parents I want him to do it better than I did. But my kids are great and I often marvel at the fact that two such handsome and smart young men are in any way a product of me.

I love self-publishing. As I’ve said before, I always wanted to be a newspaper columnist and to some extent still have that dream in the back of my mind. But the freedom to write what I want and have it go out to a daily audience of about 700 people is amazing to me each and every day. It’s something I take for granted more often than not but when I think about the world we live in it’s simply overwhelming. There are so many times I look at something and think “In a real world this shouldn’t have happened” and yet the new media infrastructure allows for the seemingly improbable to happen on a relatively frequent basis. That never ceases to amaze me.

I love my church. We floundered for a while in finding a good church but the one we’re going to now is fantastic for so many reasons. It has a wonderful day school that we’re sending our kids to so that they can learn about God, his son Jesus Christ and everything else in addition to all the usual school stuff. The service style (we’re Lutheran) is old-school stuff, with lots of talk about sin with an emphasis on how we can’t possibly earn God’s love – it’s Christ that earns it for us – without all the “Jesus is your buddy” crap that so many modern churches have. Christ is not my buddy, he’s my Savior and a Prince of Peace who loved sinners and beggars because they were the ones who most needed Him. That’s just awesome to me. A lot of people think “grace” means “love.” It doesn’t. Grace means looking at a despicable sinner and finding them worthy regardless.

I still struggle with a lot of issues. There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t wrestle with feelings of inadequacy and self-doubt. I’m convinced all the people standing on the train platform with me are smarter than me and are judging me. I worry about how I’m dressed, how I’m standing and everything else about my presence in the world. It’s something that takes a tremendous amount of effort to overcome at any given moment. I’m often convinced that no one actually takes me seriously and they’re just listening to me to be polite, waiting until they can talk about me behind their back.

I’ll be the first to admit it: MMM should not have lasted this long. It’s an idea that, by all rights, should have died about a month after it started. And if I hadn’t been inspired enough to expand the format, play with what I had been doing and find new ways to think about stuff it probably would have. Writing solely about how movies are marketed is an idea that only had a shot in the age of new media. For that I’m thankful. Writing MMM is more often than not an absolute blast, especially when it comes to the full campaign review columns. God those are fun. My co-worker Allison told me how she tried explaining MMM to someone she met at BlogHer and how borderline ridiculous this concept is. Yep, couldn’t agree more. But for some reason it works. Beats me.

I’m incredibly passionate about music. It’s funny because I don’t write about it that much but there’s nothing that stirs my soul quite like music. From classical to jazz to pop to rock, music just stirs my soul. Damn societal niceties – I’m going to air drum and air keyboard and air guitar to my heart’s content. It’s something that I’ve let myself not be restrained on. If you’re listening to music – whatever kind of music it is you enjoy – and you’re not having fun you’re officially uptight. Be whimsical. Stop thinking about how you shouldn’t let yourself be seen enjoying something like this and give in to the groove. Goodness – let yourself be passionate. Don’t be a grown-up.

And that’s what I try to do – not be a grown-up. I’m an adult, but my life would be so boring without giving into the passions I have. The parts of my life I regret are those where I keep myself from being as passionate as I want to be. That’s kind of funny since those are the same areas I find myself being taken to task by others on. So it’s my goal from here on out to be passionate in everything I do. It’s obviously what works for me so why the hell not?

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