I've been pondering how to respond to this. Just the fact that you asked brings tears to my eyes. Anne asked me essentially the same thing last year: "A friend recently asked me, a) what drives me and b) who am I at my core. Love drives me. At my core I am a deep, multi-discipline thinker, which I just nuanced to: I am an explorer of ideas and the mind."

This link is to the first piece of personal expository writing I ever created. I wrote it in 2013. I didn't write again for almost seven years, and of all the great pieces I have created here for Medium, I don't know that I have ever equaled this one, and I think it does a good job of answering your question.

https://medium.com/know-thyself-heal-thyself/self-portrait-in-essay-form-circa-12-2013-7bdac6f1510e

That being said, perhaps this piece also answers your question well, https://medium.com/know-thyself-heal-thyself/personal-responsibility-to-breathe-life-and-the-love-of-god-aloha-ke-akua-in-hawaiian-17d63e021d99, as nothing makes me tick more than when I receive comments like a couple I received in this story, https://medium.com/my-unpopular-opinion/no-physicist-has-yet-to-understand-the-concept-of-time-be3b33506ea6, like: "Can never THANK YOU enough for this magnificent collection of eternal infinite treasures!!!

So uplifting and infinitely the pristine unconditional love collection is looking like one of the best of the one alone consciousness of the all there ever was, is or will be.

Great image choice too!"

and "What a gift. Untying the bow to discover all the other treasures within it right now...

What a beautiful way of offer so much in one piece. Many thanks."