Comments on: Vocation (Part II) http://www.fishingforwater.net/archives/92 ... altogether just a drop in the sea ... Tue, 06 Jan 2009 06:23:36 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.0.4 by: bri http://www.fishingforwater.net/archives/92#comment-4499 Thu, 06 Sep 2007 23:31:02 +0000 http://www.fishingforwater.net/archives/92#comment-4499 Thanks Mom. I think that everyone changes the world. I don't see it as that I'll "be the one to change the world", rather I see it as stemming from the way that I was raised by you guys, being taught about helping people and giving back. I will never forget, one time when I had just started college, you said as an offhand remark that for as much as my education was costing, I had better give back a lot to the community. That remark really stayed with me, along with a lot of examples that you've shown me my whole life. It's like the Bible says: to she whom much is given, much is expected in return. Well, I feel like I've been given an awful lot - I live such a privileged life, and I've been exposed to such incredible opportunities already. I also know that I've been blessed with some talents and intelligence. Well, I feel like there has to be some reason for all of that. Maybe there are things that I can do or problems that I can solve that most people can't. I do kind of feel like everyone has a vocation, some thing that they are uniquely suited for that they can do better than anyone else. Maybe yours, at that given time, was being a really good umpire for girls' softball, or a really good DI coach, or running an apartment complex that gives people a place to live & treating ESL folks with some dignity. As far as I can tell right now, I'm here to design & create stuff that makes people's lives better. As broad as that is. :) I'm also just trying to figure out how to unite what I do for a living and my desire for meaning and a "good life", which also involves helping others. Isn't that everyone's dream really, to be able to make a living doing meaningful work? Looking back over what I wrote, I realize that it could be construed to mean that I'm waiting for all of this stuff to happen, before I feel like I can start having an impact on the world. That's not really what I meant. But I also think that it's important to have really big dreams, as big as possible, so big that it's a little scary to even say them to yourself. I was having this conversation with someone a few months ago about how, when you get to the point where your internal censor starts yelling at you and saying, "who do you think you are? you can't do THAT!", then you know that you're on the right track. And that definitely happens with me. So part of the reason that I'm even writing these posts is to try to get past some of that, by saying some big scary things in public, even though I fear they might make me sound self-centered or naive. I'm so proud of you and Dad, and my grandparents and all of my ancestors too. I'm proud of where I come from, even though I don't really belong there anymore, and I appreciate many things about the way I was raised and the values that you guys gave to me. I think that you have touched a lot of lives in the time-span of yours, including of course mine! I definitely wouldn't be where I am today without you and Dad. Love you. Thanks Mom.

I think that everyone changes the world. I don’t see it as that I’ll “be the one to change the world”, rather I see it as stemming from the way that I was raised by you guys, being taught about helping people and giving back. I will never forget, one time when I had just started college, you said as an offhand remark that for as much as my education was costing, I had better give back a lot to the community. That remark really stayed with me, along with a lot of examples that you’ve shown me my whole life.

It’s like the Bible says: to she whom much is given, much is expected in return. Well, I feel like I’ve been given an awful lot - I live such a privileged life, and I’ve been exposed to such incredible opportunities already. I also know that I’ve been blessed with some talents and intelligence. Well, I feel like there has to be some reason for all of that. Maybe there are things that I can do or problems that I can solve that most people can’t. I do kind of feel like everyone has a vocation, some thing that they are uniquely suited for that they can do better than anyone else. Maybe yours, at that given time, was being a really good umpire for girls’ softball, or a really good DI coach, or running an apartment complex that gives people a place to live & treating ESL folks with some dignity. As far as I can tell right now, I’m here to design & create stuff that makes people’s lives better. As broad as that is. :)

I’m also just trying to figure out how to unite what I do for a living and my desire for meaning and a “good life”, which also involves helping others. Isn’t that everyone’s dream really, to be able to make a living doing meaningful work?

Looking back over what I wrote, I realize that it could be construed to mean that I’m waiting for all of this stuff to happen, before I feel like I can start having an impact on the world. That’s not really what I meant. But I also think that it’s important to have really big dreams, as big as possible, so big that it’s a little scary to even say them to yourself. I was having this conversation with someone a few months ago about how, when you get to the point where your internal censor starts yelling at you and saying, “who do you think you are? you can’t do THAT!”, then you know that you’re on the right track. And that definitely happens with me. So part of the reason that I’m even writing these posts is to try to get past some of that, by saying some big scary things in public, even though I fear they might make me sound self-centered or naive.

I’m so proud of you and Dad, and my grandparents and all of my ancestors too. I’m proud of where I come from, even though I don’t really belong there anymore, and I appreciate many things about the way I was raised and the values that you guys gave to me. I think that you have touched a lot of lives in the time-span of yours, including of course mine! I definitely wouldn’t be where I am today without you and Dad.

Love you.

]]> by: MOM http://www.fishingforwater.net/archives/92#comment-4498 Thu, 06 Sep 2007 18:34:36 +0000 http://www.fishingforwater.net/archives/92#comment-4498 I’ve read with interest your posts about doing something that really matters. At age 50, I’d been thinking about my life and how woefully inadequate I have been at accomplishing that big something. However, I have recently been blessed with just a few small gems that give me hope that maybe I have made a difference in this world. I umpired girls’ softball for 8 years. I did it for two reasons. When I was growing up, the girls’ teams always had the worst, most inexperienced officiating because anyone that was any good at all got tapped for the boys’ teams. So I decided I would learn the rules better than anyone else and do the best job I could so the girls wouldn’t be shortchanged. I also used the extra money for Christmas gifts for my children. A teacher friend recently shared with me that she overheard two girls talking about playing ball and they were trying to remember the name of that woman umpire who’d always help them, showed them a better way to swing the bat and was the best ump they’d had back then. And over the past few years, several of those girls rec’d softball scholarships and are studying teaching, medicine, veterinary, business….. So did I change the world by standing behind home plate? Probably not but I did make a difference in some of those players’ lives even if the don’t know my name. Another instance I want to mention was brought to my attention when Mike and Varbi came for Beth’s wedding. The following day, they told Dad and me how much they appreciated our friendship and all we did for them back in Indiana when they were teens, college students and newlyweds. I can’t really remember doing much for them at all! I remember having a lot of ice cream and chips on hand for the whole bunch of them, helping with some of their coursework and letting them use our computer on which they played Sim City. But they said they still haven’t found friends to take our place and our mentoring has made and is making an impact on their lives. Finally, I’m sure you remember that I used to teach English to the Hispanics at church. A few years back, one of those men donated land in his hometown in Mexico for a church to be built there. Since then our church has made 2 trips per year down there ministering, building homes with 1000 sheets of corrugated metal we’ve provided, taking clothing……I’d like to think I had a small part in that work. So that’s all I’ve accomplished in 50 years, huh. No name in Wikipedia, no name engraved on a plaque somewhere, not even an obscure little magazine article. But I have to hope that picking neighborhood kids up for youth group, hauling soccer boys around, feeding DI teams, letting J-Rod sleep on my couch for 2 months, buying appliances at the thrift store for the GT class to dismantle, donating $$ for funerals, electric bills, a car to go to work, and other unspecified collections at church, working as the school registrar and passing along critical info to DHR/police/churches/teachers, giving leftover wedding food to the Mental Health group home…will somewhere down the line make a difference. When your great, great grandparents emigrated here from Ireland and met and married in Philadelphia, perhaps they wanted to change the world. Your great, great grandfather died young when a boiler in the factory exploded and left a 5 year-old son who grew and worked in a steel mill and had a son who welded railroad cars for 20 years and then became a preacher (who has probably touched more lives than he’ll ever know) who had a daughter who is your mother. Perhaps her daughter will be the one to change the world. But in the meantime, don’t forget that you can make a difference every day. It’s not just “the big something that really matters” that will define your life. It’s the dash, http://www.lindaslyrics.com/thedashpoem.html, along the way. I'll still, as I have since you were born, be praying for you to find that "purpose" you are looking for. I’ve read with interest your posts about doing something that really matters. At age 50, I’d been thinking about my life and how woefully inadequate I have been at accomplishing that big something. However, I have recently been blessed with just a few small gems that give me hope that maybe I have made a difference in this world.
I umpired girls’ softball for 8 years. I did it for two reasons. When I was growing up, the girls’ teams always had the worst, most inexperienced officiating because anyone that was any good at all got tapped for the boys’ teams. So I decided I would learn the rules better than anyone else and do the best job I could so the girls wouldn’t be shortchanged. I also used the extra money for Christmas gifts for my children.
A teacher friend recently shared with me that she overheard two girls talking about playing ball and they were trying to remember the name of that woman umpire who’d always help them, showed them a better way to swing the bat and was the best ump they’d had back then. And over the past few years, several of those girls rec’d softball scholarships and are studying teaching, medicine, veterinary, business….. So did I change the world by standing behind home plate? Probably not but I did make a difference in some of those players’ lives even if the don’t know my name.
Another instance I want to mention was brought to my attention when Mike and Varbi came for Beth’s wedding. The following day, they told Dad and me how much they appreciated our friendship and all we did for them back in Indiana when they were teens, college students and newlyweds. I can’t really remember doing much for them at all! I remember having a lot of ice cream and chips on hand for the whole bunch of them, helping with some of their coursework and letting them use our computer on which they played Sim City. But they said they still haven’t found friends to take our place and our mentoring has made and is making an impact on their lives.
Finally, I’m sure you remember that I used to teach English to the Hispanics at church. A few years back, one of those men donated land in his hometown in Mexico for a church to be built there. Since then our church has made 2 trips per year down there ministering, building homes with 1000 sheets of corrugated metal we’ve provided, taking clothing……I’d like to think I had a small part in that work.
So that’s all I’ve accomplished in 50 years, huh. No name in Wikipedia, no name engraved on a plaque somewhere, not even an obscure little magazine article. But I have to hope that picking neighborhood kids up for youth group, hauling soccer boys around, feeding DI teams, letting J-Rod sleep on my couch for 2 months, buying appliances at the thrift store for the GT class to dismantle, donating $$ for funerals, electric bills, a car to go to work, and other unspecified collections at church, working as the school registrar and passing along critical info to DHR/police/churches/teachers, giving leftover wedding food to the Mental Health group home…will somewhere down the line make a difference.
When your great, great grandparents emigrated here from Ireland and met and married in Philadelphia, perhaps they wanted to change the world. Your great, great grandfather died young when a boiler in the factory exploded and left a 5 year-old son who grew and worked in a steel mill and had a son who welded railroad cars for 20 years and then became a preacher (who has probably touched more lives than he’ll ever know) who had a daughter who is your mother. Perhaps her daughter will be the one to change the world. But in the meantime, don’t forget that you can make a difference every day. It’s not just “the big something that really matters” that will define your life.
It’s the dash, http://www.lindaslyrics.com/thedashpoem.html, along the way.
I’ll still, as I have since you were born, be praying for you to find that “purpose” you are looking for.

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