What Nourishes Me?

What nourishes me? Besides a whoppin' big clump o' spaghetti, or Seinfeld reruns (no matter how many times I've seen them)?

Work feels nourishing lots of times. This morning, I hauled myself out of bed late. I wandered around the apartment aimlessly, fretting about a lot of things. John asked me what was wrong, but I couldn't really say. He came into the bathroom to speak with me, assuming I was getting ready for work, but I was scrubbing the slimy underside of the rubber mat that goes in the tub. I forgot to mousse my hair so it's all flat and whacko and I forgot my shoes so I have to flap around in these rubber-duck rain shoes all day. I decided to wear my Coke-bottle glasses to give my contact-lensed eyes a rest, so I feel like I'm looking at everything from afar and it's slightly out of focus. Not a good start.

I was actually anxious to get to work so I could fall into my daily pace and feel better. I feel nourished by the structure and community of work. It often soothes my neurotic soul. Also, there's an energy about the Business School that I like. It makes me feel in the flow of life. It's about education, which is positive and has forward motion. Even my building has a feeling. It's architecturally pleasing, and that helps me feel more internally ordered.

By the way, you should see how clean our bath mat is.

                    Betsy

Core Values

I have no doubt it's the cleanest bath mat in Watertown.

You wrote about how the structure and community of work can actually nourish you. Most of the time I am the only one here, so I don't have the kind of community you do at the Business School.  But even the routines help. 

Especially when all of life is flying apart, to sit with some familiar routines, like--coffee from the same cup, or study in the morning--that helps.  So often we think of work as that which adds stress to our lives, and often it does. But it also brings a kind of nourishment as well.

I find this to be true particularly if I have the opportunity to reflect on what is happening at work: Why am I enjoying this project? Why am I avoiding that one? Why did his comment bother me so much? Why did finishing this today feel like such a victory? 

A related thought. One day early on in my time here, I sat and wrote down my core values for this church. Just my opinions about what I wanted this place to be about. I wrote one word, then a little description. The words were things like: Authentic, Relevant, Process Oriented, Justice, Creative, things like that. Then I taped them to my wall.

But in general, do most people find their work nourishing? In general do I find work nourishing? I don't think we do. Why is that?

I'm sure there are lots of reasons, including financial pressures, bad work relationships, and endless 'Dilbert type beauracracies' But how about this as well:  We have compartmentalized our lives into sacred and secular categories. So church, volunteer work, and relationships can be spiritual things. But something so mundane and gritty as work is purely secular. It's like we have spiritual myopia, unable to see Christ at work anywhere other than places that bear the name Christian.

            Peace, Doug 

Does the Institution Have a Spirit?

I'm intrigued by your notion of spiritual myopia (and not only because I'm so intimately familiar with the myopia part!). I think you're right about it. We don't tend to think of our workplaces as spiritual.  Yet in places that are filled with people, how can the places themselves NOT be spiritual? But that brings us to the big question: does the institution itself have an animating spirit? Sometimes it certainly seems that the Business School does. I feel compelled to come here. Something larger than me draws me here. I guess you could say that's purpose (or need for a paycheck), not spirit. But what is the driving force behind that purpose, if not the spirit of the institution?

For a few days last week, a lot of people in my department were saying that something just didn't feel right. People felt (and looked) kind of purposeless. What's up with that? Just a coincidental, biorhythmic quagmire, or post-holiday doldrums--or was the HBS animating spirit adrift for whatever reason, causing people to feel off kilter?

I wonder if the organization's spirit is really separate from the people? Do we help feed/nourish that spirit? Or is it the other way around. When I have trouble focusing my work some days, I try to zero in on what I can do to at least make someone's day go better around here. When I do that, I wonder if I'm feeding the spirit of the organization? Maybe not. Maybe I'm just trying to make myself feel better.

I will say this. Sometimes at night when I drive by, I look at my building--which looks good in its night lights--and it looks like there's somebody home.

Enough for now.

        Betsy

In Him All Things Hold Together

When I wonder about the possibility of organization's having their own spirit, I think of that passage in Colossians: "He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation; for in him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers--all things have been created through him and for him. He himself is before all things and in him all things hold together." (Col. 1:15-20, underlining mine).

If all things were created by God, and God's spirit hovers over all of creation, why wouldn't institutions, like people, have spirit?

I also think of New Testament scholar Walter Wink's work (try saying that three times fast). Wink has come to believe that all institutions, including corporations, schools and businesses is a combination the physical and spiritual. 

And If you asked Wink about the relationship between us and the spirit of our organizations, he would say is that we are to be intercessors, or pray-ers for our institutions. Not just for the people in the organization, but for the institution itself (see Engaging the Powers).

What do you think?

        Doug

Intercessors for Institutions?

I am struck by your description of Walter Wink's stuff about our roles as intercessors -- or "pray-ers" for our institutions. That helps me make sense of my job. Now that I'm working in an organization as large and old as the Business School, I often wonder what difference I could possibly make as one administrator. I am encouraged, however, to think of myself as an intercessor--one of a long line of people who have entered this institution at a moment in time and held it up in prayer, worked on its behalf, etc.

I have just been assigned to a task force that will plan the renovation of Baker Library, the oldest business library in the United States. As I sat in our first meeting the other day, with the architects and the many folks here who will play minor and major roles in this effort, I looked around the room and thought, "How is it that I am here, and what is my purpose?" I felt somewhat overwhelmed and daunted by the challenge to contribute something of value to a project as huge as this one. So it helps to think of myself as an intercessor. Along with my other assignments in this project, maybe I am to pray about the library--all that it has been and will be for so many people.

Whew. Surely there's a bath mat out there somewhere that needs a good scrubbing. 

            Betsy

Journal Questions:

2. How would you describe the "animating spirit" of your organization?

3. How do you see your role or mission at work?