i do what i do to honor my family, to learn and to grow, to pay the mortgage, and to make meaningful contributions with others.

in a nutshell, to stave the burden of mortality.

To make the world just a little bit better place, hopefully.

I do what I do because I know who I am and I have happy, grateful feelings of fulfillment in expressing that being-ness. I love Life and Life loves me (and loves you too!!).

ML

Bryan Donnell's response to why do you do what you do?

Filmmaker [Los Angeles, CA]

And I thought that this would be an invitation to a Welsh-speaking page....

I can be very precise, but pithy isn't usually my forte. You want details?:

I became an overnight indigent in the mid-'70s (sociopath husband with a gun pointed at my head, but the reason is not important since there are diverse ones) after many years as an upscale community activist, teacher, etc. I discovered that my husband had forged my signature on my home, bank accounts, EVERYTHING, and I had about $300 and my car left as "mine."

The police said to call them after I was shot. No lawyer would take my case without a $5000 retainer. No official in the Courthouse would even discuss my problem. I was suddenly homeless. One cannot remain with friends forever, so long story short, my car headed for Maine -- where I had spent many peaceful summers. I lived on a deserted island off and on for almost two years...out of my car. No one knew I was homeless; I looked just as good as any tourist. I made unusual jewelry from ocean and forest detritus and wore it into tourist towns, selling to shops and to anyone who asked about it. I bought one item at a flea market and traded that for three and began acquiring enough for my own table. I went to antiques shows and offered to sit in booths while the dealers took breaks. I took a few of the antiques I finally acquired and sold them.

I had learned how to be self-sufficient. I wrote to UCLA and requested a fully-financed M.A., Ph.D. and law school so that I could DO something about all of the middle-aged women whom I met who were pursuing the same tactics that I did to survive. I began a "second academic life" in 1980.

I've worked in shelters for battered women, a city attorney's office, and taught at UCLA. Then I founded Women Organized Against Homelessness (WOAH), a 501(c)3 nonprofit which focuses on assistance to the Undetectable Homeless. There are no quantitative stats since these women and now, in the 2000 decade, many men, are living anonymously across the country in urban and rural areas. They are not "street people" or "bag ladies." They are former middle-management employees, widows, divorcees, longtime non-salaried homemakers, and a few ex-movie stars. They are usually well educated (even some Ph.D.s), and have become self-sufficient, living out of vehicles (RVs, trucks, vans, trailers, etc.) as they either find parttime employment or create their own unique businesses. Since I'd "been there, done that," I can discern who might be among the undetectable homeless population (now undoubtedly the largest homeless subculture in America)and I have been traveling the East Coast and 10 states for 5 months every year for 9, locating, interviewing, and filming the people and where they live during the day and at night.

Two books, a doc, and some TV shows later, I'm now networking more effectively with other nonprofits and individuals so that we can share info and data about self-employment and alternative lifestyles. My goal is to find an abandoned town which can be recast by and for the homeless and can be used as a model in any state. That has taken me to documenting the destruction of small towns and rural areas via over-development (sprawl) and its negative effects on the environment. I am currently a pariah among everyone in my area since I've been videotaping their county and town commissioners/planners/zoners meetings as they deliberately destroy wetlands, waterways, and forests. Greed.

There's more, of course, but this is enough to encourage others to tell more of a "story" about WHY....

Since there are few women who have had my experiences and my opportunities, I have the desire and obligation to DO as much as I can to alter just a bit of "injustice" in my small part of the world....

Roger Manley's response to why do you do what you do? [Paris, France]

Roger wrote and directed a new film with Peter Friedman called MANA: BEYOND BELIEF: A motion picture encounter with power objects and how people believe in them.

It's an incredible movie you all. And, it's playing at the Roxie in San Francisco starting July 8th. Don't miss it.

wdidwid? bind.

it gets me closer to my meaning in life

It leaves a mark. [a]

This is my initial/gut reply. There's some ambiguity here that's pleasing. I know what I mean.

It's taken longer than I expected to add further comment. I needed these words to settle around me.

I cannot be in this life and not leave a mark, as this life leaves its mark on me.

[a]	I know that I act with intention and purpose. Every step I take, every word printed or uttered, every gesture has an impact and consequence.

Assuming this is about the work I do, this is why...

I do it because I can't NOT do it. I can't NOT do it because I believe it was given to me to do. I feel humbled to be a part of what I do, and when someone points out to me that I am the "creator", etc. of what I do, it's hard to believe sometimes. I often can't remember how I thought of it, how the songs came, how the process evolved.

I do what I do because I believe music is one of the most powerful mediums on the earth to move the human soul. It can evoke joy, laughter, sorrow, pain and love like nothing else. It can awaken a tired dying soul and breathe life and hope. It can bring healing, restoration and lift the spirits of those who've been wounded, forgotten or abused. It can move people to action, and also is used in every celebration in life. AND it's fun!

The beauty of music, melody, harmony, rhythm is universal, understood by every person on the earth.

I want to inspire wonder, creativity and preserve innocence in children through the gift of music. Expose them to the great melodies of old, the great standards, new songs, all styles, let them experience the breadth of the power and diversity of music.

The end goal is so that they become more human, feeling , thinking and acting adults. That they keep a sense of wonder about the world...

I do what I do again, because I can't not do it. I've never worked so hard in my life for so long, and received no pay... that's a clue in itself that this is what I'm supposed to be doing right now...

But in the end... it's because I love to see children and people touched and this is just one way I get to do it. :)

when the fire is burning you have no choice but to feed it or let it go out....and i'm still enjoying the warmth!

hmmm. I had said "bind" to mean "because it needs doing," but it occurs to me that it could be interpreted as "because I need dough." If that's the reasoning, I should definitely dsd.

Now see, knowing that Ethan is a lisp programmer, I thought he was making a cryptic reference to Unix bind (DNS software), and I was wondering how that had such a big impact on his life... :)

Love. I need it. Want to give it. World needs it. What else is there, really?

Day three of working on my answer... I think I'm almost there. Not taking this lightly.

Called.

Phil Mitchell said:

Now see, knowing that Ethan is a lisp programmer, I thought he was making a cryptic reference to Unix bind (DNS software), and I was wondering how that had such a big impact on his life... :)

because I rely on it every time I connect to oNet, of course!

Because I asked the universe for work with these parameters...and I got it. Because I want to make my own difference in the world AND empower others. Because I want to live my best life and help others live their best life too. Because it helps me share my values with my family. Because I get to write--and I HAVE TO WRITE OR DIE. Because my brain gets turned on each day. Because work connects me to incredible people. Because it is amazing to watch people be transformed. Because I have hope.

Joan Furman's response to why do you do what you do?

Holistic Nurse Practitioner, Chrysalis Holistic Counseling Services [Nashville, TN]

I decided to walk a path of healing and peace after decades caught up in a whirlwind of helping others. Ironically, that decision resulted in renewed commitment to others, but only after significant healing and from a place of peace.

My early development was often punctuated by defining moments such as noticing through my living room window a woman left behind, because the back of the bus was full; questioning the purpose of separate water fountains or the justice of filthy facilities; being denied admission to medical school because I didn’t belong there as a woman. I worked compulsively to heal the world, but needed to heal the healer first.

Today, Intended or unintended control or cruelty by one person or group over another is a driving force behind my commitment to addressing not only racism and sexism, but all the “-ism’s” that plague our world.

My counseling practice and community service focus on walking a path of healing with clients or groups. My passion and compassion are based in honoring all of humanity with our uniqueness and our sameness, and living my life in love and peace. As Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”

~ Joan Furman

So many ways to answer this question!

I think that people go through life trying to figure out what they are supposed to do. I was an undergraduate at Caltech, and it can be pretty intimidating hanging out with Nobel prize winners and feeling like pond scum relative to the capability to come up with brilliant new ideas. I was learning how to make smart bombs: pattern recognition technology for helping a bomb with a camera in the nose find and blow up a target. My first (and only) good idea while in college was to use that technology to make a reading machine for the blind.

Eight years later, we'd built the first reading machine that could be afforded by the blind, but our venture capital investors pointed out that it wouldn't make enough money. So, I started a nonprofit to make reading machines on the side while I continued my entrepreneurial career. However, I kept sliding over to put more time and energy into the social enterprise. Sixteen years later, I've shed my last for-profit job and am now 100% in the social sector (at Benetech).

Why? Because I feel like I've found the way to do what I was meant to do. And, it's something I get more out of than starting regular companies (which is fun and challenging, but simply not as important as starting something that will have a explicitly positive impact on society).

Jim

A man is not remembered by what he consumes in his life but by the stuff he leaves behind, I want to leave more than a stinking cesspit of waste and pollution.

Besides, if I didn't do what I do, then no one else would.

marjorie you might check his out:

http://money.cnn.com/2004/12/22/real_estate/buying_selling/thursday_freeland/

Well - I started out in art school, because I was good at making things. But when I got there I found it hard to be around so many people who by definition must live at the center of thier universe. I couldn't take myself THAT seriously.

After floating for years, getting an English degree and then getting sucked into the extreme vaccuum that was silicon valley - and with manifold stop offs at strange and wonderous places, I came to feel that the environmental crisis was so immense that it was literally crazy to spend ANY time do anything but working on sustainability.

I felt like I was working for 8-10 hours a day going in exaclty the opposite direction of what was nessesary and then playing catchup in the few tired hours in the evening.

I realized that I had been grieving for the planet ever since I was young. Nature shows seemed like pornography to me--- all this beauty you'll never touch -- (actually you shouldn't touch...) I actually cry a lot when I watch nature programming - because it seems to me like a reflection of something far in the past.

Anyway, long story short - integrity became an overiding issue if I was going to stay sane. So know I am happy to say my extensive creative and technical skill set is at the service of something I believe in with every cell in my body.

It feels really really good.

Ps I should say I met some ofthe most creative idealistic -provocative and productive ideallists in the world while in silicon valley.... some other values dominated though and that never sat well with me.

Noriko Fuku's response to why do you do what you do?

Modern photography curator at Kyoto University of Art & Design [Kyoto, Japan]