![\"IMG_8671\"](\"https:\/\/www.washingtoninst.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/IMG_8671-225x300.jpg\")
<\/a>Tikkun olam.<\/span><\/p>\nThere were times this week I felt like I was walking through the day trying to repair the world. One morning I put on worn-out jeans and painted in my son David\u2019s house in Anacostia. After some years of dreaming and working in that neighborhood, he is selling his house. A horrible mess when he bought it, completely full of junk and garbage everywhere, he slowly made it new, renovating it from top-to-bottom. He hopes to put it on the market in the next few days, and so he has been working on it, getting it ready, and I wanted to help.<\/span><\/p>\nI had planned to come home, get cleaned up, and then go to my afternoon meeting at the headquarters of a global corporation that I consult with. But painting \u201cone last section\u201d kept me longer, and I decided to just go \u201cas is.\u201d It was okay, as we met offsite in a restaurant that didn\u2019t mind.<\/p>\n
This company makes things that people all over the world enjoy, by the billions of dollars worth. For years now I have worked with them on rethinking the way that business is done, in fact the way that economic life is ordered, and as the months pass that work only becomes more intriguing and complex. Some time ago I offered my colleagues there the vision of \u201ctikkun olam,\u201d a long-ago Hebrew way of describing our vocation as human beings to step into history \u201cto repair the world,\u201d seeing ourselves as responsible for the way things turn out. For years I have been intrigued by what the image means, and what it assumes.<\/p>\n
Most of us see the sorrows and horrors of life, and groan. Things are not the way they are supposed to be. But \u201csupposed to be\u201d makes assumptions. There are really only a few ways of seeing life that can make sense of \u201csupposed to be.\u201d Not all ideas are equal; they just can\u2019t be. Not all stories tell the same story; how could they?<\/p>\n
For example, drawing on the analysis of my favorite philosopher\/poet, Bono of U2, who sees \u201ckarma\u201d written into most ways of making sense of life and the world\u2013 whether the materialism of the West (\u201cI am my DNA, and therefore the wiring has already been done\u2026 and I have no responsibility\u201d) or the pantheism of the East (\u201cThe fates have already decided what is and will be\u2026 and therefore I have no responsibility\u201d) \u2013he argues that without \u201cgrace\u201d we are stuck, metaphysically and morally\u2026 in moments we cannot get out of. And that\u2019s a problem.<\/p>\n
To speak of repairing the world assumes that we see some things as \u201cwrong.\u201d But if what is, is right, then what is wrong? Nothing, really. Personal preference matters, but not very much. At the end of the day, what I like bumps up against what you like\u2014and anyway, \u201cIt is what it is.\u201d Whether a broken house or a broken economy, things are as they are\u2014after all, what is, is right.<\/p>\n
But human beings that we are, there is something in us that cries out. We do groan. We do sigh. We do protest. And sometimes, we long for something more, maybe even for the way \u201cthings are supposed to be.\u201d<\/p>\n
More could be said, of course, especially about the reality that every effort at repairing the world costs us. We will get hurt, because it is very messy, and never neat-and-clean. To take up the wounds of the world will wound us.<\/p>\n
This week I went further up and further in to the vocation of \u201ctikkun olam,\u201d a calling that belongs to all of us, sons of Adam and daughters of Eve that we are. The vision makes sense of the brokenness of life, of everyone\u2019s life, of life for everyone\u2014whether my son\u2019s house or my colleagues\u2019 business, whether your hope or the heartaches of neighbors a world away. We yearn for things to be made right, for life to be as it could be, as it might be, as it should be\u2014as it is supposed to be.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Originally published at the Washington Institute for Faith, Vocation, and Culture. Tikkun olam. There were times this week I felt like I was walking through the day trying to repair the world. One morning I put on worn-out jeans and painted in my son David\u2019s house in Anacostia. After some years of dreaming and working […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1734,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[62,12],"tags":[107,6,108,109],"class_list":["post-359","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-meaning","category-vocation-2","tag-brokenness","tag-calling","tag-repairing","tag-tikkun-olam"],"yoast_head":"\n
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