Home > Helpful Resources > Tip of the Week Articles

TIP OF THE WEEK ARTICLES

A Meaningful Quest

Dr. Stephen R. Treat
June 18, 2007

As graduation season approaches, I am aware that many of us expectantly, and sometimes worriedly, ponder the future of our young adult children. And others, well into their adulthood, face the daunting challenge of a second career. And I am left wondering about the meaning of one's work - one's vocation, if you will. The Oxford Dictionary defines vocation as a "calling," a "mission ," a "pursuit."

In my mental wanderings, I am reminded of a movie I saw some years ago called “The Fisher King. The movie is about a very successful radio talk show host named Jack who meets a bum on the streets. While no diagnosis is given, Parry's elevator doesn't quite reach the top, if you know what I mean. He is not exactly homeless, but almost. He lives in the basement of a dilapidated apartment building next to the furnace. Eyeing Parry's miserable living conditions, Jack in exasperation asks, "Parry, why don't you just get a job?" Parry answers distainfully, "I had a job. Now I have a quest." That is the line that struck me and that I want to share with graduates today - young and not so young - as well as families and friends. "I had a job. Now I have a quest." Parry is mostly homeless and entirely crazy, but he is a man on a mission. He is looking for the Holy Grail, if you will. His is a holy journey through life - and so that is my wish for all graduates - for all of us actually - not so much a successful career, but a meaningful quest.

The great German scholar Ernest Kaseman says that our bodies are the space we occupy in the world, and I would sugggest that for all of us there is nothing more important than discerning the deepest calling for our lives and striving to discover where we fit in the kaladescopic pattern of creation. There is nothing more important than finding a place to work.

Martin Luther King wrote "Whatever your life's work, do it well. Even if it does not fall in the category of one of the so called big professions, do it well. As one college president said, “Each person should do his or her job so well that the living, the dead, and the unborn could do it no better. If it falls your lot to be a street sweeper, sweep streets like Michelangelo painted pictures, like Shakepeare wrote poetry, like Beethovan composed music. Sweep streets so well that all the host of heaven and earth will have to pause and say, ‘Here lived a great street sweeper, who swept his job well.'"

In Maya Angelou's wonderful book “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings,” there is a remarkable character, named Margarite. Margarite was a little girl who endured an abusive experience which silenced her voice for over a year. Neither pleadings nor beatings could make her speak, until one day she met a teacher named Mrs. Flowers. "It would be safe to say," wrote Margarite, "that she made me proud to be black just by being herself." One day Mrs. Flowers invited the silent black girl over to her home to read aloud to her. "She opened the page and I heard poetry for the first time in my life. 'It was the best of times; it was the worst of times.' Her voice slid in and around down through and over the words. She was nearly singing. I wanted to look at the pages. Were they the same as I had read? Or were there notes, music, lived on the pages as in a hymn book? Then Mrs. Flowers said, ‘Did you like that?’ I had to speak. I said ‘Yes, ma’am.’ It was the least I could do; it was the most I could do." That teacher loosened the tongue of a silent child and made the world a better place.

Author Fredrick Buechner suggests that the place we are called to work should be the place where our deepest gladness meets the world's deepest need. We are called to work at the place where our gifts and interests collide with the deep needs of the human family, and we are called to do it fairly and compassionately. In this season of graduations, my sincere wish for all of us is good work to do.

---

Dr. Stephen R. Treat is a Senior Therapist and Director/CEO of Council for Relationships. He is a sought-after speaker, consultant and media contributor who can be seen every Friday morning on the 10! Show on NBC. He can be reached at 215-382-6680 x3123.

For more relationship advice, check out our Archive of Relationship Tips.