saying yes to life

the call

My loved ones and I continue to revisit the idea of a calling when it comes to working life - because almost everyone you know will tell you that that's something that makes your days (thus your life) significant. At least one story goes: if you don't and can't love what you do at work - where we direct considerable energy - you haven't found your way and you're kinda lousy.

I wrote this several years ago in an attempt to crystallise my most important takeaway from James Hillman's "The Soul's Code: In Search of Character and Calling."

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 If we have a daimon, a genius, an indwelling spirit that spurs some of us to great heights, what of those that seem to live normal, everyday lives? Can there be a call to mediocrity? Yes, says Hillman, there is a call – but not in the way that we think. We denigrate the mediocre but that is so when we generalize – for who can tell us the character of each person making up this mass of “average”, those who live without shining so brightly?

 “So let’s clear away a typical mistake: identifying vocation only with a specific kind of job, rather than also with the performance in the job,” says Hillman (p.252)

a story about the little prince (no spoilers)

When I read it I was wondering almost all the way through… “what is so great about this that some consider it a classic?” I admit I found it hard to keep interested in it, as each (short) chapter seemed to hint at something, a globally-shared condition of humanity; appearing only to say more by leaving things unsaid.

I got impatient until the last 2 or 3 chapters when it all seemed to tie up together, and then I realised – so this is why.

It didn’t strike me down with the force of understanding (like Kahlil Gibran’s The Prophet, or the flashes of insight (like Richard Bach’s Jonathan Livingston Seagull), or even blinding literary succour (e.g. Clarissa Estes’ Women Who Dance With the Wolves), but worthy still because it doesn’t pretend to be anything it’s not: a story for children, entertaining and stimulating in and of itself.

But for adults, there’s always a little bit more. Final verdict: Read.

jonathan livingston seagull

Why I recommend "Jonathan Livingston Seagull" (taken from another profile I have)

WORTH CONSUMING!

I’m a bit more biased toward liking this book rather than against it. It was something that dad referred to sometimes – and I had on my own curiosity read Richard Bach’s “One” when I was a pre-teen. Bach was for many years an airline pilot, and it heavily influences his writing.

I think that made me more receptive to the idea that I might like this one, and I wasn’t disappointed. The ideas in JLS resonate quite strongly with the present-Me: in that there is more to oneself than this self, and that the search for perfection can only be sought and felt in this very moment.

It’s not a preachy book, which I like – but also that it doesn’t pretend to be anything other than an allegorical tale of one’s own search for more. It’s a book that takes a very short time to finish but is food for rolling around in your mind for weeks at a time.

I can understand now why it fascinated an entire generation of readers, as it came at a time when I think these ideas (which seem so commonplace now) weren’t ready for release without the cover of storytelling.