The High Road
Heavenletter #3185, entitled The High Road, elicited quite a few comments on the Heavenletter Spiritual Community Forum from people who quit their jobs in order not to compromise themselves.
Now, I’m a person who quit quite a few jobs because something wasn’t quite right with them or the organization, and I had my standards.
Looking back, I quit too easily. Looking back, I think I was like being Bette Davis in a movie. I think I was turning myself into a heroine. I would leave in a huff. I’m sure I thought I was right, but now looking back, I think I was simply overly self-righteous. I certainly saw myself as virtuous, but now I don’t see it that way. I am sure I thought I was taking the high road, but now I don’t think so. I think I was making a fuss.
Was I motivated by my high standards, or was it my ego that made me quit? Did I quit because I thought myself just too good for a particular set of circumstances?
How do we know when it is right to leave or right to stay, even when everything is not ideal.
I certainly do think there are times to quit a job. I also think there are times to stay with a job even when you don’t want to. But how do we know which is which?
Looking back, without doubt, I made a fuss where I definitely wouldn’t now. And, yet, how do I know in terms of my life whether what I did was right or wrong? Oh, the road taken, and, oh, the road not taken.
What is this about standing up for ourselves? or standing up for our rights? When are we caving in? When are we doing what we have to do and there really isn’t a moral issue? If the person I work for isn’t all I would want him or her to be, do I have to quit? If the person I work for is a cad or a crab, do I have to quit? Does the employer have to be all I think he or she ought to be, or am I to learn acceptance and non-judgment?
But how nice to work for someone you admire and want to learn from. I’ve been fortunate with that too.
There are so many jobs that would be intolerable for me. So many environments. Nothing wrong with them but not happy for me. Not meaningful for me.
I used to do value clarification with my classes. Here was one of the exercises:
Of these three jobs, which would be the worst for you, and why? Which would be the best for you, and why? Rank them.
A. pickle inspector
B. car wash person
C. the person at the toll booth who takes the money
No right or wrong answer, of course. Just a way of finding out what matters to you.
Isn’t there something weird about the whole concept of job — filling a slot.
If you could pick the work you really want to do, what would it be? Given the choice, what would you be doing, do you know?
Of course, now I find myself doing what I would love to do with the Best Boss in the World and with the finest people I could ever work with. How I got here I don’t know. Marvelous good luck that I fell into.
Back to the Heavenletter, The High Road. Where does judgment come in?
I finally figured out what judgment is in the sense of “Judge not.” To my mind, it’s not preference. It’s not discernment. I think judgment has some ego components. I think it’s judgment when I think I’m better than someone else because of what they do or don’t do. I believe God is telling us that it’s judgment when we feel “holier than thou.”
Could I write advertising for a whiskey company or a cigarette company? Could I work on the atom bomb? Could I be in the military? Do I even know what I could do. Could I work in a field that I have issues with? If I were hungry enough, could I? How about you?
Godwriting is a blog by Gloria Wendroff and is about Gloria's daily life as the Godwriter of the Heavenletters project that is having a profound effect on the lives of people around the world.
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