Content is in the news.
Awkward! But, actually, if you just say it differently, everything changes. Instead of “CON-tent”, say: “con-TENT”. Big difference.
“CON-tent” really is a sort of empty term. It draws attention to its purpose as a commodity and a container for … well, it doesn’t really matter as long as it sells!
But to be “con-TENT” is a sort of exceptional proposition in this day and age. The idea of it is somewhat compelling, even.
It might even be a way to live.
That’s what lies behind the idea of the company name. I’ve found that a lot of my life has been striving for one thing or another, feeling the pressure of the rat race, hoping to find the magic bullet that will deal with everything and solve the problem of existence under the challenges of modernity.
When I started to think about what it might look like to quit chasing after all these things and instead to turn around and focus on what really stirs me — beauty, ideas, and the things that people care about — I realized that I’d nearly mistaken making a living for making a life. And rather than churning out CON-tent, I actually needed to aim for a different emphasis.
How to live con-TENT? That’s the lifelong question. But if you were to poll the vast majority of the sages and wise people who have lived, I think you’d find very few who’d say that striving was the key to happiness.
The highest good is like water. Water gives life to the ten thousand things and does not strive.
Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching
+ Jeff