Two friends were born in the same week, in the spring of the year I was born, many years ago. If memory serves me, each year during his birthday week one of the friends sends out a note reminding anyone who cares to ponder it, saying something like this: If there's something you were put on this earth to accomplish, better get to it.#
Since my birthday is only a handful of weeks earlier, that annual spring message speaks to me a little louder , a little more symbolically, than it might without these personal connections and coincidences in place. #
And that other friend, born that same spring week those many years ago? He was in my circle of close friends from school more than fifty years ago. No other non-family member saw so many decades of my life. And a few weeks ago he passed away, short of his spring birthday.#
He held his cards close to his chest through much of his life. I suspect he thought he had not accomplished as much as he could have. I had trouble persuading him that he would never know the ripples of influence that moved outward from him, from his careful reflection, from his moral character, from his inventive decisions. I suspect that he thought that what you accomplish in life is something you see and know clearly, can have confidence in and can name.#
I'm not sure that we all can have that sense of clarity. I suspect that he doubted himself and his accomplishments in the weeks of his final illness. Introvert though he was, those ripples were always emanating from him over the years, influencing others at near and far distances. There were people in need he served, for one thing -- who can measure that accomplishment? #
So expecting the surviving friend's annual note to come this year during their spring birthday week, I find myself thinking of tangible and intangible ways a person can satisfy its tolling of the calendar bell. Both kinds of accomplishment are very real, but the intangible, the ideas spun out into the community, say, the motions of spirit and example, the naming of standards for our actions, the creativity, the calling for creativity, all these and other un-measurables, well, yes, we'd better get to those with some urgency too.#
We would come to understand the many tasks, focused around one question that demanded an answer. This we would call the work of a generation. This work would define us. We would be known for this work as long as our society endured in its current form.#
But how to discover the question that would guide the work? Where would we meet in order to talk it over? Who would speak at the meetings, bringing the evidence of what lived experiences and what expertise?#
Who would call the first of these meetings? How would people be persuaded to attend? How would they be tempted to believe in the possibilities? How would the word get out and be noticed in a society already flooded with words? What would tempt people to attend to the word of the first meeting if they once noticed it? #
What information and conversations would prepare the ground, as it were, for the seed of the early meetings? What weathers water what was planted there? Who would provide and provoke the inquiries that had a hope of discovering the question that could, in time, form up the idea of the work of a generation? #
How could an agreement be reached to undertake the worthy work of a generation? What about the naysayers who remained?#
Who would set out the work? Who would clarify the work as it was being set out? Who would refine the plans along the way, based on what conversations and what inquiries? Who would extend the schedule for some years if work remained?#
What kinds of celebrations would be held as the work of that generation concluded? Who would tell young people about the work of the elder generation? Who would persuade them of the honor of good work? Who would urge and tempt them to look for the next quiding question? Where could they begin to meet? Who would call the first meeting?#
Two friends were born in the same week, in the spring of the year I was born, many years ago. If memory serves me, each year during his birthday week one of the friends sends out a note reminding anyone who cares to ponder it, saying something like this: If there's something you were put on this earth to accomplish, better get to it.#
Since my birthday is only a handful of weeks earlier, that annual spring message speaks to me a little louder , a little more symbolically, than it might without these personal connections and coincidences in place. #
And that other friend, born that same spring week those many years ago? He was in my circle of close friends from school more than fifty years ago. No other non-family member saw so many decades of my life. And a few weeks ago he passed away, short of his spring birthday.#
He held his cards close to his chest through much of his life. I suspect he thought he had not accomplished as much as he could have. I had trouble persuading him that he would never know the ripples of influence that moved outward from him, from his careful reflection, from his moral character, from his inventive decisions. I suspect that he thought that what you accomplish in life is something you see and know clearly, can have confidence in and can name.#
I'm not sure that we all can have that sense of clarity. I suspect that he doubted himself and his accomplishments in the weeks of his final illness. Introvert though he was, those ripples were always emanating from him over the years, influencing others at near and far distances. There were people in need he served, for one thing -- who can measure that accomplishment? #
So expecting the surviving friend's annual note to come this year during their spring birthday week, I find myself thinking of tangible and intangible ways a person can satisfy its tolling of the calendar bell. Both kinds of accomplishment are very real, but the intangible, the ideas spun out into the community, say, the motions of spirit and example, the naming of standards for our actions, the creativity, the calling for creativity, all these and other un-measurables, well, yes, we'd better get to those with some urgency too.#
We would come to understand the many tasks, focused around one question that demanded an answer. This we would call the work of a generation. This work would define us. We would be known for this work as long as our society endured in its current form.#
But how to discover the question that would guide the work? Where would we meet in order to talk it over? Who would speak at the meetings, bringing the evidence of what lived experiences and what expertise?#
Who would call the first of these meetings? How would people be persuaded to attend? How would they be tempted to believe in the possibilities? How would the word get out and be noticed in a society already flooded with words? What would tempt people to attend to the word of the first meeting if they once noticed it? #
What information and conversations would prepare the ground, as it were, for the seed of the early meetings? What weathers water what was planted there? Who would provide and provoke the inquiries that had a hope of discovering the question that could, in time, form up the idea of the work of a generation? #
How could an agreement be reached to undertake the worthy work of a generation? What about the naysayers who remained?#
Who would set out the work? Who would clarify the work as it was being set out? Who would refine the plans along the way, based on what conversations and what inquiries? Who would extend the schedule for some years if work remained?#
What kinds of celebrations would be held as the work of that generation concluded? Who would tell young people about the work of the elder generation? Who would persuade them of the honor of good work? Who would urge and tempt them to look for the next quiding question? Where could they begin to meet? Who would call the first meeting?#