Journal of Sacred Work

...without people pushing against your quest to do something worth talking about, it’s unlikely it would be worth the journey.    -Seth Godin

   I don’t know Seth Godin, but I like a phrase he uses in a recent entry on his blog: "the forces of mediocrity." It’s an attention-getting phrase because we each, instantly, know what he means. We’ve all seen these forces at work and they are so very powerful, aren’t they?
   A caregiver spends extra time with a family member grieving her sister’s cancer diagnosis. "Come on, Mary Jo," a supervisor chastises, "you need to spend time with the real patients."…

  Of course, in loving cultures, caregivers understand that family members are a part of the mobile that connects each of us to the other. Touch one part of a mobile and all the pieces will shake. Each of us needs support to regain the balance essential to healing.
   In cultures of mediocrity, exceptional efforts are punished by "the ethic of the tribe." How does mediocrity sustain itself? When the predominant way of being is to do the minimum, when the language of the day is suffused with "how long until quitting time?" and when the body language of the members of the team all signal boredom, efforts at excellence can be met with hostile retaliation.
   Where do you see mediocrity on a regular basis? With occasional exceptions, convenience stores seem to breed it. Poorly paid clerks who are dealing with sometimes rude and grumpy customers construct a shell around themselves. The face of this shell is boredom and disinterest.
   I note the same environment in lots of retail settings – from chain drug stores and grocery stores to discount vendors. As a customer, you can sometimes penetrate this with a moment of kindness to the clerk. I tried this recently with a cheerful comment to a drug store attendant. "How are you doing?" I asked, because I actually wanted to know. ""Ill be better in, let’s see in, ah, 27 minutes," she said, looking at her watch. Twenty-seven minutes away was the end of her shift. The idea that she might enjoy the time in between would must have seemed completely foreign to her.
   Repetitive, mind-dulling work may wear us down, whether we work in hotels or hospitals. But some people seem to transcend these setting. In great cultures, transcendence is common.
   What we hope is that we live in a culture of Love and excellence that will continually nudge us to bring out our best. It may surprise some to know that in cultures of Love, people are not spending their days watching the clock or focusing on how quickly they can get rid of the person in front of them. And they also don’t spend their days in fear of their supervisors.
   What does a culture of Love look like to you? What is the energy like where you work and live?

-Erie Chapman

Today’s Quote – From the book Coming to Terms with Mediocrity by Kari Breed: "Some people are happy to live their lives helping their fellow man in small,
quiet and miraculous ways. These are the people that should be admired,
though they most likely are not. I try to be that holy, but I fall painfully
short. I take that back. I don’t try. I’m actually very wrapped up in my own
concern for my own self. It’s not that I don’t want to help people. It’s just
that I want to do it in a way that’s right for me. I want to do it selfishly. And
that means doing it through my insecurities and self-doubt – through my
writing."