I love mystery/thriller novels, and I’ve savored virtual stacks of audiobooks while cleaning, driving, and decompressing before bed. It’s fab to “read” one or two books a week while on the run (or inches from sleep), and following the story more closely is an unexpected bonus. My ears tune into small things that my eyes might have skimmed over.
One of these small things is from Tony Hillerman’s Jim Chee novels, where it sounds like the narrator emphasizes the Native American concept of being “born to” and “born for” their parents’ clans when discussing lineage.
My mind has a hard time with this elegant perspective…it’s entirely stuck on my own limited view. To me, born to and born for aren’t about who we’ve come from, they’re about where we’re going to.
I was born to __________
Whether or not we’re born to do something—like dance or sing or fight or write—is arguable, but from where I sit, it surely appears to be so. Even if we’re not born to a career or task or job, many people seem built to do what they do best. How else do we explain child prodigies? Or star athletes? Practice is key to fully developing anyone’s potential, but there also seems to be a predisposition for what these folks so excellently do.
But really, we don’t have to be born as a top-ranked anything to acknowledge, embrace, be fulfilled, and profit from our inclinations. As an example, I am a backstage person. Every Life experience from my childhood through 20 minutes ago has shaped and reinforced my tendency to be a person who works best behind-the-scenes.
I like to discover stuff: research, read, poke about, and pick things apart. I like to make things: scribble, assemble, sew, and knit. I like to make things happen: designing, assimilating, planning, and programming. I’m a packrat of ideas, resources, trivia, and bits of info.
I’m shy in group conversations, but I love to talk one-one-one. A lot. In grade school I got As in everything except Behavior, where I got Cs because I was often caught chatting with my “neighbor”. This post is way late because I spent the entire afternoon brainstorming with friends/clients about shopping carts, marketing funnels, and income streams.
Looking at it from here, my Life has been a winding road that sometimes cuts back over itself: going from one group of friends to another, into and out of a marriage and then into another one many many moons later, from architecture to databases to instructional design to internet programming, from admin jobs to independent contracting to technical jobs and now (happily, thankfully, blessedly) this.
I’ve walked a crooked path for 39 years, and somehow arrived in my perfect place with everything I need to keep steppin’.
What was I born to do, if not what I’m doing right now?
He was born for __________
In this context, maybe there is little difference in being born to do something, and being born for a specific purpose. Either way, I know a number of folks whose paths have twisted a good bit. Like me, they got to where they are despite—or because of—the detours, bypasses, and rest stops of their Lives.
For instance, my friend Scott Hummel is a wonderful designer, and always has been. It’s been 10 years since I’ve seen him, but in our college days (and after) he always had a sketchbook near-to-hand, filled with portraits of the people and objects he witnessed while moving around town.
Scott’s habitats were always artsy in the best way. Nothing that screamed “Artist!”, just elegant and simple, full of brightniftybeautiful mementos and stones and pots and whatnots that you were free to pick up and explore. He’s the son of an art teacher. His young ones are already showing clear signs of his family’s creative legacy. He was born for a creative life, and it is born from him.
His path took him away from architecture to some thoroughly non-design related major, then continued with an education and a career in service learning, all while playing and coaching football. I remember Scott saying he was “an East Coast guy”, that his career with college students was it, and that his sketching, pottery classes, and other artful hobbies were enough to satisfy him.
And then he dropped everything, moved to San Francisco, and went back to school for photography and sculpting. And then he was an art director and produced catalogs. And now he designs logos and websites and all kinds of good stuff.
I laughed out loud when I first heard about Scott’s change of direction. I knew his creative life would come for him, eventually. He could sideline it for awhile, but there was no way to deny it forever. That said, there’s no doubt his path was perfect for him, however crooked. As he puts it—
Now…I get to be an artist, an architect, a collaborator, and a community builder. I am able to weave my passion for design with my ability to translate the stories and dreams of others into forms that communicate each client’s unique offerings to the world. I have found my calling.
What was he born for, if not for the purpose he serves right now?
You were born to/born for ________
There are dozens of stories like ours, from Scott’s business coach—who started as a therapist, went on to counsel families with family businesses, and now also coaches solo shops (like his)—to his friend who was a chaplain, and then an artist, and is now a web design project manager. Some roads are crooked-er than others, but I’m finding that very few walk a straight path.
What were you born to and born for,
if not what you’re doing right now?
If you’re not sure, maybe your path—however crooked—can tell you.
Photo credit: djrueb
