Callings: The Purpose and Passion of Work

“And, as you’ll read in these stories, finding what you’re meant to do with your life has a lot to do with careful listening—to that quiet voice inside that speaks to who you really are. As the writer and teacher Parker Palmer wrote in his book Let Your Life Speak, ‘before you tell your life what you intend to do with it, listen for what it intends to do with you.’”

In the Introduction, author Dave Isay lays out a framework based on the work of other respected writers to explain his organizational and interpretive choices. In doing so, he establishes ethos, drawing on others’ expertise to support his own. This quote becomes the foundation of one of the central themes of the book.

“For those of you in search of your calling, consider yourself warned: this pursuit takes discipline, resilience, sacrifice, and tremendous hard work. [...] Allow yourself to be led by what truly moves you. And don’t compromise your values—ever.”

Isay offers several criteria needed in the search for one’s calling. While these qualities, including discipline, resilience, and sacrifice, thread throughout the stories collected in the book, they never rise to the level of fully formed themes. These qualities are often considered necessary for achieving the American dream, an undercurrent that runs throughout the text.

“I get totally psyched in to what I’m doing, just like people must do when they write music or paint a painting—anything artistic. It doesn’t even seem like much time goes by. You forget to eat, you forget to get up, you forget to drink water. Everything just goes into suspension. And then fifteen hours later, I have a face.”

Sharon Long, the forensic artist, describes her experience of sculpting a facial reconstruction. Though it is scientific and forensic work, she views it in the same light as artistic endeavors and gains a similar sense of meditative and creative fulfillment from the act. This quote also encapsulates the book’s conversational