Plato, Scrooge
and the Christmas Calling

In the 19th century, Charles Dickens' Scrooge was born. Scrooge was the grandfather of numerous future Scrooges. We know many of them, as they appear in the movies and TV shows around this time, such as "It's A Wonderful Life" or the variations on the classic Scrooge stories, or some TV movie about a family crisis that separates relatives who are finally healed at Christmas. The theme is always the same, a cold-hearted person who has lost his or her humanness and through miraculous events, finds it again. Healing takes place and the spirit of Christmas triumphs. The spirit of Christmas is about love, joy, the birth of a simple wondrous moment in time, of hope for humanity.

What does this have to do with work and a calling?

Most of the time the modern world sees a calling as being the best job fit, a perfect match between your talents and the work you do. It also appears in a "mission statement" as a value, or principle, that is bigger than the individuals in the company. For example, the mission statement may be to provide the best quality nutritional products, thereby serving the health and well-being of others at the highest level of care and quality. That's a pretty big standard. And a noble one. Naseem Javed, a foremost authority on name brands in companies, says that the best brands are those which convey the quality of nurturing and wholesomeness. So a mission statement and brand that consistently sticks to conveying and providing a brand and a product that is both wholesome and nurturing, has a pretty darn good chance of being highly regarded in society.

So the modern world has two meanings to a calling:

1. An established healthy value that resonates with everyone (mission statement)
2. A passion, or joy that one feels when doing work that uses our best abilities and interests (good job fit)

But I'd like to add more.

A calling is an expansive space. True, it is a good match with your talents, but it is also a work that triangulates you with life and God.

I'd like to quote from Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet, p. 27-31.

"But I say to you that when you work you fulfill a part of earth's furthest dream, assigned to you when that dream was born. And in keeping yourself with labour you are in truth loving life. And to love life through labour is to be intimate with life¹s inmost secret.... All work is empty save when there is love; And when you work with love you bind yourself to yourself, and to one another, and to God. And what is it to work with love? It is to weave the cloth with threads drawn from your heart, even as if your beloved were to wear that cloth. It is to build a house with affection, even as if your beloved were to dwell in that house. It is to sow seeds with tenderness and reap the harvest with joy, even as if your beloved were to eat the fruit. It is to charge all things you fashion with a breath of your own spirit.... Work is love made visible. And if you cannot work with love but only with distaste, it is better that you should leave your work and sit at the gate of the temple and take alms of those who work with joy. For if you bake bread with indifference, you bake a bitter bread that feeds but half man's hunger. And if you grudge the crushing of the grapes, your grudge distills a poison in the wine. And if you sing though as angels, and love not the singing, you muffle man's ears to the voices of the day and the voices of the night."

He doesn't mince words, does he? Pretty strong language for a poet. But is he right? We don¹t always see this kind of love for work in people, do we? And if we try to work this way, is our effort always appreciated for the honesty and self-sacrifice that we give? No, not always. And sometimes it's just expected without really an acknowledgment.

But Gibran is speaking about what I'd like to suggest is at the heart of having a calling, of having a work with purpose.

When you find a calling, you are opening your heart. There is a feeling of grace and harmony with life, a joy that comes when we let go and let God work through us. Remember what happened to Scrooge. He got in touch with lost and forgotten parts of himself, and in the end, the boy in him, the part of him that enjoyed the wonder of life came alive.

Note that these three have something in common: the core, the part of us where we focus on being the most active with our work, should come from predominately within the heart and secondly within the mind. Values come from the heart, as does meaning or that healthy place in us that needs to do our best work.

The reason we need both is this. Our minds keep us crisp and able to discriminate the subtle challenges and problems that need wise discrimination. The childlike heart keeps us open and fluid, able to adapt and change and not become so cold we start to think like Scrooge. Too much heart and we can be so mushy we are unable to have boundaries or say no to anyone. Too much mind makes us freeze up and doesn't give enough wiggle room to be compassionate when life isn't always neat and tidy. Keeping the two in balance is a challenge. That's where trusting to a higher source helps keeps us more detached and unfettered. So often, when we put our best efforts out and it's not appreciated, we get fussy and cranky. We forget that linear time and events are not the only machinations going on.

Here's where Plato comes into the picture.

Plato talked about the Idea of something. Birds we see are just rudimentary reflection of the Idea of a bird, but not the true bird, as yet. Human, earthly existence is too poor of a material to replicate the real, true bird. Yet we can improve on our representations. Now that's just the basics and I won¹t go more deeply into Plato or the neo-Platonists, because I just wanted to capture the essence of the idea.

When you have a calling, you are seeking an Idea of your true work. But like the mirage, it's always out of our reach, always an image that we strive to perfect. It requires courage, love and strong mental acumen to take a stab at making it real. But it's always in evolution, always growing with us as we grow. So it's never finished, never completely within our grasp. At the same time, we can be nudged and urged forward to this calling by the divine. A calling requires having a big-hearted love of life and love of work, like the joyous transformation of Scrooge, all the time. It means returning to our inner child and at the same time being wise and discerning.

You may say, this is all fine and good and confusing, but how do I find *my* calling? What is my joy? Sorry, I can't help you there. Your calling is your own journey into the mystery of yourself. It's as much a Holy Grail quest as it is the science of assessments and skills inventories. And every day, it's subject to change, because you change. I don't know what my calling is. I only know that today it has to do with describing some of the elements of what a calling is about. Who knows what next week will bring. Each twist on the path grows me and you. It may never be completely known. As long as I don't let my mind freeze an image and expect it to be the sum total, then I'm open to more advancement.

So a calling is metaphor, mystery, love, humility, joy and playfulness with life. It's a crystal clear vision of a company and the science of organizational psychology. And it's you, God and the world trying to make something happen.

Barrie Jaeger is a coach, speaker and writer on the meaning of work for the 21st century. She believes that work is one of the greatest arenas for growth as a human being. Her special joy is in helping people find their calling and taking the steps to self-employment.

"The Work Purpose Coach," "The Self-Employment Doctor" are trademarks of Dr. Barrie Jaeger, a California based company.

(c) Copyright 2000
Barrie Jaeger All rights reserved.