" . . . It's what you do that defines you."

I've had some good conversations with people over the last few weeks about what they want to do with their lives. I chatted with a former student, Vlady, who is thinking of becoming a soldier and going to Iraq. I had dinner with the missionaries this week - Kathy was eating at a Christmas party that night. Both Elders said they wanted to be surgeons. (How's that for imagination?) Actually, one of them said he loved history and wanted to study history and then be a doctor - for the money. The other said his grandfather owned a ranch in Wyoming and his favorite thing in the world was to go up there and work outside every day. So I concluded that what we had here was a historian and a rancher. I've also, in their turn, been talking to my younger siblings on the same themes. Anyway, the conversations were exclusively with people in their twenties. Indeed, I remember that decade as the decade of worry about what to do with my life. The worry hasn't exactly left me and I'm not in much of a position in my own career to be giving "career" advice, but then again I'm not sure I've any readers so . . .

A few things must be said, of course. No one can choose for you what to do with your life. I've always thought the money motive was fairly crass. All money can do is make your life easier and that's only true to a certain point and for certain people. I've known plenty of people with great piles of money who were still worried they didn't have enough; I've seen others with next to nothing as content as the day is long. The other funny thing is that I'm not convinced that once you choose a career that there is that great of a disparity in what you make compared to others that has much relevance. There are always compensations - as of course there is no correlation, direct anyway, between how much you make and how happy you are or how good your life is.

I recalled this quote from Wendell Berry's essay, "Quantity & Form" in his brilliant book, The Way of Ignorance:

What is or what should be the goal of our life and work? This is a fearful question and it ought to be fearfully answered. Probably it should not be answered for anybody in particular by anybody else in particular. But the ancient norm or ideal seems to have been a life in which you perceived your calling, faithfully followed it, and did your work with satisfaction; married, made a home, and raised a family; associated generously with neighbors; ate and drank with pleasure the produce of your local landscape; grew old seeing yourself replaced by your children or younger neighbors, but continuing in old age to be useful; and finally died a good or a holy death surrounded by loved ones.

I like the thought of one's life and work as a calling. I also like to think of a calling as part of a landscape of life choices that cohere in a vision of larger meaning and purpose.

There are a lot of people who feel some need to apologize for their career choices or who backpedal about the real contribution of their work to the collective good. I think that's mostly sad. I've always thought that car mechanics or computer technicians or what have you make as serious and real a contribution to the commonweal as teachers or doctors. I think this quote from John Ruskin illustrates that point rather well:

Five great intellectual professions, relating to daily necessities of life, have hitherto existed – three exist necessarily in every civilized nation:

The Soldier’s profession is to defend it.

The Pastor’s [and I would put Professor’s] to teach it.

The Physician’s to keep it in health.

The Lawyer’s to enforce justice in it.

The Merchant’s to provide for it.

And the duty of all these men is, on due occasion, to die for it.

‘On due occasion,’ namely: -

The Soldier, rather than leave his post in battle.

The Physician, rather than leave his post in plague.

The Pastor, rather than teach falsehood.

The Lawyer, rather than countenance Injustice.

The Merchant – what is his due occasion of death?

It is the main question for the merchant, as for all of us. For, truly, the man who does not know when to die, does not know how to live.

Ruskin puts a dramatic spin on it, but I think the notion of what to do with one's life is tied up in the notion of when and how one will die - as in the Berry quote above. Every career or profession - well, perhaps I overreach, most serious-minded careers have some larger obligation to the common good, perhaps even a time to die in your post, if its aim is at the best.

It's probably easier than most of us realize to be a sell-out. In this clip from the film A Man for All Seasons, Richard has been waiting all night to beg Sir Thomas More for a position. Richard doesn't much care for More's offer of a post as he's already, as you can see, sold himself out to the highest bidder. He's grateful that More's given him an expensive gift all the while missing the more valuable advice:



This exchange, for obvious reasons, inspires me. I hope you can be inspired by the purpose and sentiment behind the advice. A calling is about being true to who you are together with a mature appreciation of your own strengths and weaknesses. A man should go where he won't be tempted.