"The work"

There were several meaningful passages in "The Work" that I could have chosen from this week. I decided to go with a passage on page 110 , stating ...

" The huge challenges the globe faces can be met only if we're all pulling together , if we can make use of all the worlds human resources . And for people who are driven by religious or secular ethics , its hard to argue that the needs of Americans are somehow more important than the needs of people anywhere else in the world . The question is , What need can I best help address? For some of us , we are all called to do work in other parts of the world . The opportunity to help is not limited by borders -- and the beautiful part is that when we reach our hands across the globe to serve others , we don't return empty-handed . There is always an exchange . "

There are many points that stood out to me in the previous passage . The first idea was the selfishness of not only American , but people in general . We all feel like our individual needs are more Important than someone else's . When we think this way we are building a hierarchy of whose problems to solve first and that should not be the case . Instead of thinking of ourselves all the time , we should look at the bigger picture . I truly believe we cannot succeed and thrive individually if we are not serving someone else as we go along .

The idea of building relationships is present in this book , and is also relevant to SuperKids camp . Building relationships/Community is a central theme over the summer and it is very well needed . I decided to move the desk around in my classroom today to break up some of the chaos . I gave my group discussion questions today instead of individual work , what I realized is that my children do not know how to work in teams . This was evident as I looked around and saw only one table talking , while the rest sat at their desk awkwardly , not making an attempt to go over the questions . Its super important to learn how to develop healthy relationships because whether we like it or not we all need someone . Its also important to build relationships because this helps communication skills , used to express and regulate emotions (VERY MUCH NEEDED IN CHILDREN OF THIS AGE).

He also brought up individual purpose in this short excerpt . I used to ask myself all the time , "What is my purpose?" "What do I want to do?" , "How can I help?" . Now that I am getting older and more comfortable with myself I realize that I do have a purpose , an individually crafted purpose . As Wes says , "For some of us , we are all called to do work in other parts of the world" , referring to people being called to do different things , in different places, in different ways .

I am still not certain of what I want to do , but I know a part of my purpose is to serve , make someone else feel good about themselves if only for the moment . I want to make people feel like they matter and that they can achieve whatever it may be , and this is something I know I can do no matter what field I choose to work in .