My Center

I recently watched a YouTube video in which a therapist and a filmmaker explored the psychology of a character named Jack Frost from a film titled Rise of the Guardians. In this YouTube video, the therapist and filmmaker spoke of a scene in which Santa Claus explains to Jack that everyone has a center, something that motivates them, something that makes them them. It's something like a purpose. In the film, Santa Claus says that his center is Wonder, seeing wonder in the world and helping others to see it, too. And later in the film, Jack discovers that his center is Fun, that what he enjoys most is having fun and helping others have fun, too. The therapist and filmmaker discussed their centers as well, considering ideas like Fun and Helping Others for the therapist and Creation and Storytelling for the filmmaker. Naturally, they asked their audience to consider their centers as well.

Much like Jack Frost at the beginning of the film, I don't know what my center is. I don't know what my purpose is, what brings me joy, what makes me me. Some years ago, I might have said Helping People, because I do genuinely enjoy that, when I don't feel like I'm being taken for granted or terribly burnt out. I like Making People Happy when I can. I also love Exploring Ideas and Solving Puzzles, but I'm not sure that either of those are my center, and I'm even less sure that I'd want them to be. Helping Others is noble, and I used to enjoy it a good deal, though perhaps I enjoyed it because it made others happy.

I'm not confident that I know what my center is. I'm not sure I'd recognize it if I saw it. I'm not sure what I'd want my center to be or whether a person can choose (rather than discover) what their center is. These are things that I'm hoping to discover about myself. If it's true that people have centers like that, I'd love to know what mine is.