Making a Difference or Making a Living?

Why is it so challenging to be both meaningful and effective at the same time?   Why do some people think it is impossible to both commit your life to something about which you are passionate and make a practical difference, to “do good and do well?”

Can I be both strategic and monastic at the same time?

There can be a tension. I saw this tension more clearly because of one the cases I handled as a criminal prosecutor.  The case, from rural Wisconsin, focused on a person accused of petty theft for taking four tires from a salvage yard.  The defendant changed his story several times while testifying.  The jury found him guilty, more quickly than any other jury that anyone could remember.  In addition, this defendant had already been convicted of petty theft three times before. Because he was a habitual offender, I was in a position to argue that the sentence should be prison time, for taking four tires from a salvage yard!

At the sentencing hearing, I realized that, while each of us had done our jobs well and been as effective as possible, we had focused our time, energy, and attention on answering a question that was fairly pointless. There was no real question that the defendant was guilty, beyond any reasonable doubt. There was a much deeper question, and no one had spent very much time or effort at all on answering it. For all of our “effectiveness,” no one really knew what we could do to get this defendant to stop taking things. None of our combined professionalism seemed to make much difference to this deeper question.

I believe that our lives encompass both what we value and daily life; like being both funny and serious, it is important for us to be able to be both strategic and monastic, both meaningful and purposeful. Life is “both/and,” not “either/or.”

I do not have all the answers. I believe that asking the questions, and sharing our wisdom, brings us closer to the truth. I also believe that we can translate our deepest values into tangible steps to make practical differences each day.

What do you believe?

[Image by qthomasbower]