Filed under: letters
Dear Ms Theologian, Please tell me how to find my avocation.
Not just a career, or a job, but my life’s work.
Signed,
Can’t Believe I Have to Look at Spreadsheets for the Rest of My Life
aka
Doesn’t Give a SHIT About the Client’s Stupid Data
or
People are Dying of AIDS in Africa and You’re Freaking Out About a 500
Unit Discrepancy?
or
(Even Worse) Doesn’t Give a Shit About the People in Africa Either,
and is Worried She’s a Bad Person…
Dear Searching for Avocation –
You ask a good question.
Ms. Theologian would like to tell you about a sermon by Victoria Safford in 1991. She said that an avocation exists at the intersection of your greatest passion and the world’s greatest need.
Assuming that people in Africa aren’t your greatest passion (and we’ll throw in spreadsheets as well), these are the questions you have to answer:
What is your greatest passion?
What are the needs of the world?
Where is this intersection?
Full avocated, though often underpaid,
Ms. Theologian
Wow, that is really helpful. I’ve asked myself this question a lot, and I’m coming to see that I am doing it — in the here and now. Thank you for this.
Comment by Anne Bauer 11.21.05 @ 5:07 pmA few years back I went to a career counselor through the local community college. It was somewhat helpful, though yet again, the aptitude tests said I should be a chemist. Wonder if the Wes counselor’s tests would say the same thing. (sigh)
Comment by Anne Pender 11.21.05 @ 6:09 pmYou’re welcome, ab.
And, ap, I don’t think the chemist is so much an avocation unless you are filling some great need in the world (that matters to you).
Comment by Stephanie 11.22.05 @ 9:59 ambut what if you have no passion?
Comment by Anonymous 11.23.05 @ 6:40 amH
H, I have two thoughts–when you have no passion either you have passion, but cannot identify it (e.g., Harry Potter, Goth Chicks, books) or you are suffering from depression, which takes away passion or dampens passion sufficiently so it seems it does not exist.
As I’m sure you know, when people are depressed for a long period of time they think it’s just how life is so depression is even harder to identify.
Comment by Stephanie 11.23.05 @ 9:56 am