Comments on: Vocation: Action Versus Dreams

By: Cameron Plommer

Cameron Plommer — Fri, 28 May 2010 15:09:51 +0000

This is great writing and great words to live by. Like many people I feel afraid to attach myself to any one thing, whether a personal hobby or career/job. But the only way one can really know what they truly see as their calling/passion/vocation is by doing. You must take action, somewhere, doing something. You must try things, discarding what doesn’t feel right and what does. Talk to as many people as you can, figure out what your strengths are, READ.

By: James

James — Thu, 27 May 2010 03:54:43 +0000

This has become yet another full circle in the possibilities of affirmation/confirmation in my personal life. As a new friend of mine (20+ years my senior and recently recovered from a bus accident that lost him a lot, to include memory and physical ability) explained/discussed with me today on “vocation”, I am found previously choosing multiple blocks at once, trying each in a different technique and throwing them all out and starting over, (paraphrasing terminology from this awesome article of course). Our conversation got my brain started on the very subject matter of this article only earlier today. And now, while reading the comments, I am “nailed” so-to-speak, on the convictions of those sharing their thoughts. Jace provided a point that I struggle with when he “summarized” his understanding of the article with two questions pertaining to what I have always called “constructive-dreaming”. Yes, I try to excel at everything I do and dream always, yet, for a moment I understood the same way; of there being a chance to “not construct anything” while dreaming all the time. My starting over frequently is proving that point and leaving me with a weakening foundation. Only when Jace asked the final question and I re-read the final sentence in the article, did I make real this fact: I am the only one that knows how to do what I know how to do! No one else can be me! I have been afraid to “settle” on a block for my castle walls because I thought someone else could just copy what I do and run, invalidating my efforts and thwarting my dreams. I cannot be “copied”, not what’s in my head. This is my passion, no one else’s! I kept a style and thread through all my block chippings and only I know what the next steps are to manifest my dream for world consumption.
Put it this way, I’m glad I kept my favorite rock in my pocket while I was throwing all those other blocks away ’cause I still have my original “picture-in-my-head” and through my “doing” will probably build my castle foundation and structure with some sturdy structuralized pizazz!
I over-stand now. (I like that word too.)
Thanks, I love this stuff!!!

By: Jace

Jace — Thu, 27 May 2010 02:13:44 +0000

So the essence of it is…to keep your dreams alive while excelling at everything you set your hands upon? Even though what your hands touch may not construct anything of use for the dream?

By: Gary

Gary — Wed, 26 May 2010 16:27:18 +0000

Great piece. It inspired me to start reading the whole book and I’m glad I did. It’s a great read.

That anyone would find this stuff hard to follow is a sad indicator of the poor education of modern men. This kind of writing used to be par for the course. Now a generation raised on junk literature lacks basic reading comprehension skills.

By: C.M.

C.M. — Wed, 26 May 2010 13:43:50 +0000

Mato, your thinking is clear. Don, it IS hard to follow. Just take what you can out of it and leave it be, Mr. Brown. You are both good men. What a great article! Blessings

By: David Walker

David Walker — Wed, 26 May 2010 12:41:10 +0000

Don – Brett and Kate didn’t write that. As they say in the italicized editor’s note, it’s an excerpt from a 1914 piece by Edward Howard Griggs. That’s how things were written then, and really, it’s not that high. The sentence structure is a bit different from what we use today, but the vocabulary isn’t all that different or difficult to grasp. I suggest reading it again, very slowly. It took me a couple of passes and summarizing what I read in my head every few sentences.

Brett and Kate – Nice find. And thank you for the Google Books link.

By: Don Brown

Don Brown — Wed, 26 May 2010 11:59:06 +0000

You are talking on 30,000 Km on the air. It is hard to follow what you writing or figuring out what you really mean. Get to the point. Keep your writing simple please.

By: Mato Tope

Mato Tope — Tue, 25 May 2010 20:41:10 +0000

Excellent article, yet again.
Humanity and its progressive endeavours have always been pulled along by the visions and ideals of a few. The potential of Utopia is hinted at in magical pieces of art and music, offering glimpses of the wondrous possibilities of humankind.
Consider man at his best; Beethoven, Galileo, Da Vinci, Socrates, Shakespeare etc. Were they not also mortal? Did they not also bleed? Yes, but they all had ideals and vision and poured their very souls into creative acts of divine magnificence.
The new Manaissance requires the emergence of free-thinkers, scholars of truth, explorers of the unseen hinterland of human experience.
Byron said; “How little we know what we are, how less what we can become.”

Every moment of our life can be the discovery of something finer, brighter, better.

By: JG

JG — Tue, 25 May 2010 20:37:16 +0000

Very nice! But more please. I like what I am reading thus far. Makes today’s self-help writers look like kindergartners.