Faith & Life Inspirational Message

What a trio of words we have in the title of this inspirational essay.   Work, creativity, and caring are all weighty words alone.   But together they are heavyweights!   These words come packaged in the last paragraph of the book, The Active Life , by my friend, Parker Palmer.   This is a book I have used in class, as well as the Soul Work group I lead on campus.   In essence, it is a book, which tries to teach us who are involved in the active life how to be contemplatives.   To those of us in the active life, it always seems easier to think about becoming a contemplative---that is, living life from the perspective of contemplation---if we could run off and join a monastery.   But obviously, most of us are not going to do that.             So I appreciate Palmer’s effort to show me how, as I live an active life on campus, to live my life contemplatively.   This is where that last paragrap...

I was recently at a gathering of sports figures, business folks and normal people like me.  It was an interesting gathering in two ways.  The first way the gathering interested me was because of the topic, namely, how to work effectively with young people.  Of course, that is a perennial concern.  So I was all ears to gain some tidbits that might help me do a better job in my own teaching.  The second way the gathering was interesting to me was simply the unlikely collection of different kinds of people.  It reinforced my conviction that some of the best learning I experience comes when I hang out with people different than I am.             The best line of the event came in an almost off-handed comment by a football coach.  While he would not have been tabbed as the philosopher of the group, he had some deep insights because of his own involvement and work with young people.  I listened...

Yesterday I was asked to be part of a session in which we were supposed to talk about our work and the context of our work.   That sounds like a simple request, but it proved more difficult than I thought it would be.   My work centers in spirituality.   And many would argue the context of that work is the classroom.   I would not disagree.   But when I reflected further, the classroom is only one context for my spirituality work.   There are many other venues where my work is also is engaged. At the superficial level, there were the obvious answers.   I teach religion.   In most instances I walk into a classroom and proceed.   I talk about ideas; I cajole them to reflect on and also talk about ideas.   I ask them to begin what many have never done, namely, talk about their experience (if any) and to begin to formulate that into their own belief system.   Most of them find it difficult, especially at first.   And I agree wit...