Moore commentary cont.

Curretnltly ont a two week trip to New Zealand with my sister. However, I brought along a kindle version of Moore's book and my netbook (yeah, I know, something perverted about bringing this stuff on a vacation, along with my ipod). So I will offer up some commentary on Moore's text as I work my way through it.

“A calling is the sense that you are on this earth for a reason, that you have a destiny, no matter how great or small. Those who look at life more soberly might question whether such an attitude is warranted. It may seem naïve. But the sense of calling doesn’t necessarily require belief in the supernatural and it doesn’t have to be naïve. A calling is a sensation or intuition that life wants something from you.”

--Let me begin by saying I am sure a lot of people feel this sense of calling about academia. And if you are one of them, then god bless and stay right where you are. Or you might believe the whole sense of calling is a “crock” and you just want a steady job that gives you security, a decent pay check and a fair amount of time off. Not that there’s anything wrong with this. All I can say is that in my own situation it was not the case that I felt a sense of calling in academia, and I am unfortunate enough to believe in such things. Through my own experience and from talking to numerous colleagues, I know that academics are constantly complaining about some element or other with regard to their job. In this, they are no different than workers in countless other professions. And to be sure, there is plenty to complain about.

But yet, not everyone feels that way about their job. One of the many “signs” I came across when travelling last spring and summer and trying to sort some things out was a lunch (well, not actually a lunch because we were at a fasting resort. More like our daily broth). I sat and listened as these two women described jobs they were committed to and that could certainly qualify as noble callings. One was working in the Palestinian territories for the UN educating children; the other had just quit her job at a law firm in London and was going back to the States to work for some organization that would advocate for justice on behalf of third world women. It’s not that I felt embarrassed at being a college professor, and I did have the two years of Peace Corps service I was coming off of. But I felt there was a way to contribute to the world through one’s occupation, and I am not sure most people in academia have that sense. Or I should say at least I did not have that sense, and I knew I wanted my job to contribute to some higher good. I felt that in a way with the Peace Corps, though there are obviously difficulties with this organization in general and with what they are doing in China in particular. But there heart is in the right place, and that was a direction I needed to go.