Vocation
Enlightened ... well, my lights finally came on! Sheww!
Wanted to record a dovetailed pair of insights.
As a preface, like most people, I hate jobs. Not work, jobs, as they stand now.
1) Last night, before I fell asleep (late again), I picked up the essays on Emerson again. Seems that after he left the Unitarian ministry, he had a crisis over his vocation. The minister had a natural role as a person of contemplation AND action, who could inspire from the pulpit. Emerson could no longer, in good conscience, be a minister. But then he was drawn and thirded, divided between being an academic, an activist, and an artist. None of those was enough on its own. So, he wrote, in his Journals -- essay after essay on various public roles, trying each one on to see which might be best for him. He realized he would need to make up his own vocation. He settled on the Scholar -- one, though, that was engaged through writing with the fundamentals of society but who did not lose himself in direct social action.
I disagree with some of Emerson's ideas. BUT, I believe I am going to have to create my own vocation sometime in the near future. First, I will have to return to student-hood but then to ... who knows? TO BE CREATED ... .
2) This morning I went with four other librarians to do a presentation for high school teachers on how to best assist their students in research. I covered literature and foreign language. There were 110 teachers there. I was a LITTLE nervous, spoke a bit too long, possibly, BUT I was reminder-bit by the bug! I LOVE teaching. I just can't accept the workload that eats away at all your personal time.
Basically, I'm going to have to find some sort of vocation that combines poet, teacher, scholar, Faerie, essayist, "pastor", counselor, utopianist, and adolescent dumbass-clown.
Any ideas?
Wanted to record a dovetailed pair of insights.
As a preface, like most people, I hate jobs. Not work, jobs, as they stand now.
1) Last night, before I fell asleep (late again), I picked up the essays on Emerson again. Seems that after he left the Unitarian ministry, he had a crisis over his vocation. The minister had a natural role as a person of contemplation AND action, who could inspire from the pulpit. Emerson could no longer, in good conscience, be a minister. But then he was drawn and thirded, divided between being an academic, an activist, and an artist. None of those was enough on its own. So, he wrote, in his Journals -- essay after essay on various public roles, trying each one on to see which might be best for him. He realized he would need to make up his own vocation. He settled on the Scholar -- one, though, that was engaged through writing with the fundamentals of society but who did not lose himself in direct social action.
I disagree with some of Emerson's ideas. BUT, I believe I am going to have to create my own vocation sometime in the near future. First, I will have to return to student-hood but then to ... who knows? TO BE CREATED ... .
2) This morning I went with four other librarians to do a presentation for high school teachers on how to best assist their students in research. I covered literature and foreign language. There were 110 teachers there. I was a LITTLE nervous, spoke a bit too long, possibly, BUT I was reminder-bit by the bug! I LOVE teaching. I just can't accept the workload that eats away at all your personal time.
Basically, I'm going to have to find some sort of vocation that combines poet, teacher, scholar, Faerie, essayist, "pastor", counselor, utopianist, and adolescent dumbass-clown.
Any ideas?