notes.jays.net

Identity, Community, & Purpose

Dad wrote this to me. It's very sweet. He's a great father. --Jay 🙂❤️

Author Christian Picciolini suggests that there are three things every human most essentially needs: a wholesome sense of identity, a caring community, and a meaningful life purpose.

The following is Jay Hannah’s ICP, viewed from his dad’s perspective:

IDENTITY

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Jay is a manifestation of the energy of compassion, expressed in both empathy and action, as evidenced by the caring he exhibits in long-term leadership and support of Food Not Bombs; assistance for Scottie and other persons in need; kindness to Huey and animals in general; and a host of philanthropic donations to not-for-profits, from housing to micro loans, etc. Typically, when we were with Jay this past week he stoped to give money to a woman selling candy outside the Asian Market. To me, this is more than just what Jay does, it’s also who Jay is.

COMMUNITY

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Jay has a wide web of relationships, ranging from S and Z; to his nuclear family (parents, brother, uncles, cousins, etc.); to neighbors (C, B, “the other” Jay & S,” etc.); to Food Not Bombs volunteers and recipients; to computer nerds and his poker gang; to scuba divers and international friends; to on-line friends, etc.

PURPOSE

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Jay values being a contributive member of society and seeks to make the world a better place for all. He has held steady employment for 30 years, pays taxes for the common good, is an informed citizen and voter, and is generous to individuals in need and to organizations dedicated to humanitarian and environmental causes.

Jay has exceptional computer and problem-solving aptitudes and interests, coupled with other attributes that made him a valuable team member: socially adept, a good listener, emotionally mature, a creative thinker, a giver rather than a taker, and a Mensa-level IQ (intellectual quotient) as well as EQ (emotional quotient).

One of my main yearnings for Jay’s life is expressed in a Robert Frost poem, “Two Tramps in Mud Time” (noting that his reference to Heaven is, for me, here-and-now, not hereafter):

But yield who will to their separation,
My object in living is to unite
My avocation and my vocation
As my two eyes make one in sight.
Only where love and need are one,
And the work is play for mortal stakes,
Is the deed ever really done
For Heaven and the future’s sake.

For the record, I know MENSA folks. I have not taken their tests, nor do I think I would score high enough if I did w/o extensive test prep. --Jay 😉