World Ark Magazine - November/December 2007 - (Page 15)

Eliot says, you have to sacrifice nothing less than everything to do it. But it brings great joy if you’re willing to make that sacrifice. So I’ve been working on that for 30 years.” THE WORST THING IN LIFE I have spent the past 15 years writing about social entrepreneurs like Phalen, Chertavian and Lerner. Many have walked away from life, we think in terms of money, health and safety—forgetting about potentially the biggest risks of all: dying with much of our lives unlived, dying with gifts still inside us that have never been given. Dr. Rachel Remen co-created the Commonweal Cancer Help Program with Michael Lerner. In her wonderful book, My Grandfather’s Blessings, she observed that after working with cancer patients for 20 Recently, I asked some social entrepreneurs about the things that made them feel most happy and unhappy. Not one spoke of money, position or status. careers that could have brought them great wealth and prestige in order to attack problems that lead to unhappiness for others. Along the way, they have encountered resistance and often experienced loneliness. Yet by connecting their needs, values and abilities with the needs of others they seem to have found deep sources of strength and joy. Just having the opportunity to write their stories has, in turn, made me feel more alive. For generations, Americans have been animated by the ideal of the “American Dream”—the notion that (within the law and unconstrained by circumstances of birth) anyone should be able to pursue his vision of the good life. Too often, however, this dream has been reduced to the dream of getting rich. William James has written that, to feel most vitally alive, people need to seek out and follow the “inner voice,” which says, “This is the real me.” Unfortunately, from grade school onward, many of us are encouraged to develop our marketability instead. As we get older, we focus increasingly on security. But when we consider the risks in www.heifer.org years, she has “come to realize how much stress is caused by the sad fact that many of us believe in one way and live in quite another. “The worst thing in life isn’t death,” she explained. “The worst thing in life might be to miss it.” Not long ago, I met a man who had recently attended his 25th class reunion of Yale Law School. He told me that half the people he spoke with—mostly successful lawyers—were unhappy or bored with their work. Now these are not underprivileged youths; these are people who have options. Why choose boredom? Perhaps Bertrand Russell had it right when he observed, “It is preoccupation with possessions more than anything else that prevents us from living freely and nobly.” Or perhaps Kierkegaard came closer to the deeper truth: “There is nothing with which every man is so afraid as getting cutline goes here New to know how enormously much he is capable of doing and becoming.” Recently, I asked some social entrepreneurs about the things that made them feel most happy and unhappy. Not one spoke of money, position or status. November/December 2007 | WORLD ARK 15 http://www.heifer.org

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of World Ark Magazine - November/December 2007

World Ark - November/December 2007 Contents Letters For the Record The Good Life Asked & Answered Pursuing Happiness (PRODUCT) RED: Consumer Power Fights AIDS in Africa Rwanda Reconciles End Hunger Now Protecting the Poor from Climate Change Mixed Media Heifer Bulletin Heifer Spirit Heifer Calendar Reflection

World Ark Magazine - November/December 2007

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