I have been having an existential struggle as of late on discovering how I can do the work that I am passionate about while ensuring that work has purpose for me.
Setting out to find the answers for my problem got me to look over my past work. This is what is good about keeping journals and blogging, it much easier to research your thoughts if you have archived them somewhere. I had to go no further than yesterday’s post to find a thought that would inspire me. “Why does the space of a church feel holy when it is empty?” That was it. What space do I feel the presence of purpose? The library.
Libraries are filled up with the collective works of people’s passions that leads them to their purpose; their higher calling, if you will. When I sit in a library I am surrounded not only by the artifacts of the collective wisdom of our history, but also by people working, studying, learning, and sharing information all in the pursuit of a higher level of intelligence. This collective group hold the threads to “do the work”.
This past year I have spent many nights teaching photography workshops in ibraries. I have come to think of myself as the troubadour-of-photography, spreading my creative dharma lessons to anyone who chooses to listen.
As I walk through the libraries and see what they mean to community, I can see the best in us. Libraries not only warehouse our books and media, but they give us a place to go. That place, that building, is needed. Seth Godin wrote a wonderful article on “The Future of the Library” and you can read it (HERE). Godin wrote “The Library is no longer a warehouse for dead books.” He may be right about that. Even with the paper book dying and the rise of the ebook the library is needed.
When you walk into a library you hold a commitment to learn, grow and discover. Best of all the library gives it all away for free; knowledge for the taking. We are living in an age named the “information economy and/or shared economy” and this is exactly what library has forever been doing, just that. It warehouses our future, the now, and the now of what we are becoming.
As I move forward in discovering the work I am passionate about I will do this work surround by the collective wisdom of yesterday in a space with other people doing their work with passion and purpose today.
