Lifework is from deeper

Lifework is from deeper

calling

Parents often talk about the different interests and aptitudes found among their children. It appears that there is something beyond heredity and environment that shapes the destiny of individuals.

W. Randall Jones, founder of Worth magazine, interviewed the wealthiest self-made men and women in 100 towns across the country to determine whatever it was that made them wealthy. What he found was that most never set out to be rich. Their fortunes are a result of discovering what they are passionate about and gifted at, early on in their lives and pursuing those interests vigorously with conviction.

Recently, Jack Borden, a Texas attorney, was honored as America’s Outstanding Oldest Worker for 2009. He continues to see clients every day at the age of 101. His advice is similar to Jones’ findings, “Decide what you want to do more than anything else in the way of work and don’t let anything keep you from it.”

A career path usually depends upon opportunities at a given time and within a specific culture but a person’s lifework engages someone on a deeper level. It is almost as if we are called to be of service in a particular way. The Latin word, “vocare,” meaning “to call,” is the source of our word, “vocation.” If the lifework is done as a leisure-time activity and not as a major source of income, it is called an avocation.

As a graduate student, Joseph Campbell was interested in how belief systems affect the motivation and lifework of individuals in various cultures. He wanted to pursue this study for his academic thesis but his doctoral committee denied his request. Rather than choose another topic, he chose to leave the university and do the research on his own.

After years of exhausting study and travel, he produced volumes of information that constitute an important resource. He lectured around the world and was often seen on PBS television lecturing or in conversation with Bill Moyers. The phrase, “Follow your bliss!” was how he summarized his work and was also the advice he imparted to those seeking direction in their lives.

For Campbell, “Follow your bliss,” was a contemporary wording for what Socrates meant when he used the motto, “Know yourself.” It is the process of honest reflection and response to what you feel you are called to do. It is living your life from the inside out rather than from the outside in.

The word “education” also comes from a Latin root, “educare” which means to, “draw out.” In school, we are guided through various experiences and discover our talents and interests in the process. Some students do not take advantage of the educational opportunities that are available for them while others go to great lengths to obtain an education.

Every schoolchild hears the story of Abraham Lincoln’s dedicated effort to study law. This enabled him to rise from his humble beginnings and become president of our country during its most tumultuous time in history. President Lincoln once said. “Let us have faith that right makes might, and in that faith, let us, to the end, dare to do our duty as we understand it.”

This summer, the Ohio Chautauqua showcased the contributions of George Washington Carver as one of our countries great innovators. Born into slavery and separated from his mother as a toddler, he grew up helping around the house and garden of his owners who taught him to read and write. He also began painting pictures at an early age using the juice of berries on pieces of bark.

Carver’s curiosity about plants and nature spurred his quest for knowledge and, at the age of 12, he walked eight miles each day to attend a “colored” school. Pursuing odd jobs along the way, he was able to complete high school and was accepted at a college to study art. Because of his knowledge of plants, his art teacher suggested he transfer to the Iowa State Agricultural College, which he did.

After receiving his master’s degree, he accepted a position at Tuskegee Institute and spent 50 years teaching and developing more than 300 ways to make the peanut a household staple while continuing to express his artistic talent as an avocation. Carver believed that, “No individual has any right to come into this world and go out of it without leaving behind him distinct and legitimate reasons for having passed through it.”

Describing a lifework as a “calling” most often occurs in reference to a religious vocation. Henri Nouwen knew when he was 6 years old that he wanted to be a priest. By the age of 8, he had created a makeshift altar in the attic and began to “say Mass” every day dressed in vestments his mother made for him.

After his ordination, he taught theology at Notre Dame, Yale and Harvard universities and wrote 40 books over a span of 30 years. At the age of 54, he experienced what is sometimes referred to as, “a call within a call.”

While visiting Daybreak, an interfaith community for people with mental handicaps near Toronto, one of the major caretakers was involved in a fatal car accident. Nouwen offered to help out and was later appointed pastor and a caretaker at the community.

As he would bathe, dress and feed those unable to do so for themselves, he came to the realization that everyone is as dependent upon God as these individuals are on their caregivers. This gave him a deeper appreciation of God’s unfailing love. He believed that each one of us is chosen by God before we are conceived and that we long to return home and fall, like a prodigal child, into the arms of the Father.

XDr. Agnes Martinko is a member of St. Edward Church in Youngstown.