We Dull Our Lives By

There Is More In A Human Life Than Our Theories Of It Allow. Sooner Or Later Something Seems To Call Us Onto A Particular Path. You May Remember This "something" As A Signal Moment In Childhood When An Urge Out Of Nowhere, A Fascination, A Peculiar Turn Of Events Struck Like An Annunciation: This Is What I Must Do, This Is What I've Got To Have. This Is Who I Am.

Not Just Any Talk Is Conversation; Not Any Talk Raises Consciousness. Good Conversation Has An Edge: It Opens Your Eyes To Something, Quickens Your Ears. And Good Conversation Reverberates: It Keeps On Talking In Your Mind Later In The Day; The Next Day, You Find Yourself Still Conversing With What Was Said. That Reverberation Afterward Is The Very Raising Of Consciousness; Your Mind's Been Moved. You Are At Another Level With Your Reflections.

The Culture Is Going Into A Psychological Depression. We Are Concerned About Our Place In The World, About Being Competitive: Will My Children Have As Much As I Have? Will I Ever Own My Own Home? How Can I Pay For A New Car? Are Immigrants Taking Away My White World?

A Mother Should Have Some Fantasy About Her Child's Future. It Will Increase Her Interest In The Child, For One Thing. To Turn The Fantasy Into A Program To Make The Child Fly An Airplane Across The Country, For Example, Isn't The Point. That's The Fulfillment Of The Parent's Own Dreams. That's Different. Having A Fantasy - Which The Child Will Either Seek To Fulfill Or Rebel Against Furiously - At Least Gives A Child Some Expectation To Meet Or Reject.

Calling Can Refer Not Only To Ways Of Doing - Meaning Work - But Also To Ways Of Being.