Tonight was a lot of threads connecting for me. At Automattic’s Noho Space we hosted an event for Martin Scorsese’s new documentary about Pope Francis, called Aldeas. There was a point in my life when I wanted to become a priest, and I had been inspired by meeting a Franciscan seminary student. I took it very seriously and considered that as a path for my life, but some combination of jazz and girls made me realize that the priesthood was not my destiny.

The jazz led to building websites for Houston jazz musicians, which led to coding, which led to WordPress, which after a lot of twists and turns led to Automattic acquiring Tumblr. One of Tumblr’s greatest memes was Goncharov, directed by Martin Scorsese. The only reason Automattic, as a distributed company, has an office in NYC is because of the Tumblr acquisition. The office is filled with art from Tumblr artists so I had the very surreal experience of talking after Martin Scorsese, who at 83 is sharp as a tack and a gifted speaker, a few feet away from a Goncharov poster about how my Catholic upbringing led me down the path of starting WordPress, and how Pope Francis’ life inspired the WordPress Jubilee and reflection. Full circle.