What's the VOICES staff reading?
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Lisa Lachky, VOICES Research Assistant, 2006, reviews:

"Let Your Life Speak"
by Parker Palmer

Some journeys are direct, and some are circuitous; some are heroic, and some are fearful and muddled. But every journey, honestly undertaken, stands a chance of taking us toward the place where our deep gladness meets the world’s deep need. (Palmer, 36).

To some, the word vocation conjures up thoughts about a career, a specific occupation, or a religious calling. In Let Your Life Speak, Palmer unveils a more holistic concept of vocation as the “place where our deep gladness meets the world’s deep need.”

Palmer cites examples from his own life of searching for deeper truth, meaning, and hope. His is a story many of us can relate to- of the pressures of trying to fit into various molds throughout life, striving for affirmation and recognition in the world of academia, and of pursuing a career path that would be comfortable and successful, but ultimately unfulfilling.
Palmer’s candid, sometimes humorous account of the misfit between authenticity and obligation, real or perceived, illuminates one of his main points- that uncovering one’s vocation is an ongoing process of discovery on the journey of life. Palmer also offers some advice about beginning or re-entering into this process. A true vocational journey, he argues, starts by listening to “let your life tell you what truths you embody, what values you represent” before telling your life what you intend to do with it.” Uncovering wisdom in introspection and reflection is a somewhat counter-cultural approach in a market saturated with stories of the lives of inspirational individuals and self-help books. However, Palmer believes it is the only way to discover the “blueprint” of one’s vocation, and prepare for “shared leadership in the world of action.” This is Palmer’s vision of a world that would be transformed if everyone was to live an authentic life, true to a unique vocation.

Idealistic? Perhaps. But indisputably an empowering message of hope to think that each of us has the capacity within us to meet “the world’s greatest need” while pursing our hearts greatest desires. I wonder what might happen if we each tried….

Erin E. Block, VOICES Research Assistant, 2006, reviews:

"Spiritual Capitalism: What the FDNY
Taught Wall Street About Money"
by Peter Ressler & Monika Mitchell Ressler

“We have two choices. We can continue to allow our business practices to separate us from our humanity, or we can choose to pursue profit in more compassionate ways.”

Peter Ressler explores spirituality in the business world through his book, “Spiritual Capitalism: What the FDNY Taught Wall Street About Money.” Ressler, who along with his wife Monika founded one of Wall Street’s premier executive search firms, describes seven spiritual lessons for business that remind those who actively pursue a capitalist lifestyle (and the concomitant profit) that they can seek profit while maintaining ethics and personal ideals. He and his wife encourage readers to consider “spirituality” as anything related to the higher self – for example, a sense of justice, compassion, and ethical conscience. Ressler ties these spiritual lessons together with anecdotes from other Wall Street executives, and frames it against the background of the events of September 11, 2001.

Ressler and his wife had many friends among the firefighters who first responded to the World Trade Center that day. Through the losses they suffered, and the losses they saw their friends both on Wall Street and in the fire department suffer, they found greater meaning in their careers. Struggling to overcome the sense that in the wake of such disaster, business was comparatively trivial, Ressler began exploring the ways in which an individual’s work can provide both financial and spiritual reward.

The book thus presents the seven “spiritual lessons for business,” lessons that challenge the reader to consider the spiritual aspects of their careers as they engage in work. Lesson Two, for example, states: “Use your pursuit of money as a tool for spiritual growth.” Using profit for good enhances the world around you, while misuse diminishes it. This use for good can strengthen the spiritual nature of your work. Money and success can be used both for good or ill, and assuming (as some do) that these things are negative is a failure to take ownership for your behavior. As the authors state, “‘It’s not personal, it’s business,’ is another way of saying, ‘I refuse to take responsibility for how my actions will affect you.’”

“Spiritual Capitalism” also stresses the nature of work as a vocation. Every job is a ‘helping profession,’ according to Ressler, and the simple fact that we are working makes us part of a sacred covenant with society as a whole; even the smallest jobs serve others in some way, and play a role in keeping society moving. All jobs have equal spiritual value, and serving others through this divine nature of our work is part of a sacred obligation we have as members of society.

The seven lessons of the book are vividly brought to life by accounts from the Resslers of what it was like to be on Wall Street during the 9/11 attacks. Their powerful descriptions of those moments, of their attempts to stay in contact with each other and their children, emphasize the importance and relevance of their thoughts on maintaining spirituality in capitalism. While a quick read (only 124 pages!), “Spiritual Capitalism” is a powerful affirmation that you can pursue profit and be successful at doing so while also maintaining and even enhancing personal ethics, spirituality, and service to others.

Alicia Noddings, VOICES Research Assistant, 2005, reviews:

"Left to Tell: Discovering God
Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust"
by Immaculee Ilbagiza

I found myself on Maundy Thursday needing to take a breather from school reading and reflect, and I was drawn to a book that my Baylor "sister" Donya recommended to me last month; the book is Left to Tell: Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust by Immaculee Ilibagiza. I could not put it down and finished it in just a few hours.

This book tells the most amazing survival story of Immaculee (the author), a Rwandan Tutsi who suffered the horrors of the 1994 Rwandan genocide that resulted in the murders of hundreds of thousands of unarmed Rwandan citizens at the hands of their countrymen. She survived, while most of her family did not. But the most amazing part of this story is the faith journey that she traveled as she struggled to survive and then to recover from the horrors that she endured. If you have ever struggled with your faith in God (and who among us doesn't), wondered how you could possibly forgive or move forward from an injustice that you have suffered, or questioned what your role and calling are in this world, Immaculee's story will touch your soul. Even her cover photo radiates her inner peace and forgiveness, and one can only imagine what she must be like in person. The forward is written by an American writer who helped her to get this story published, and he expresses how he was so touched by her "divine presence" (as he phrased it) during a brief initial meeting that he worked for weeks to track her down to find out more about her story. While it's not a pretty read, it has a wonderful message of hope and forgiveness that could be beneficial to many in our world that so often seems filled with hatred and a need for power and revenge. This message seems particularly appropriate during Holy Week and going into the darkness of Good Friday, with the promise of Easter soon to come.

Corine Hyman, VOICES Research Assistant, 2004, reviews:

"Living a Life That Matters: Resolving the Conflict Between Conflict and Success"
by Harold S. Kushner

"Like many people, I live in two worlds," writes Kushner. "Much of the time, I live in the world of work and commerce...that honors people for being attractive and productive...As a religiously committed person, I live in a world of faith, the world of the spirit. Its heroes are models of compassion rather than competition. In that world, you win through sacrifice and self-restraint. You win by helping your neighbor and sharing with him rather than finding his weakness and defeating him."

Like Kushner, most of us commute between these two worlds in an effort to meet two basic human needs: the need to feel successful and important, and the need to think of ourself as a good person. However, the pursuit of the need to be successful is often in conflict with the need to be a good person. This leads Kushner to ask readers, "Why do good people do bad things?" More importantly, he asks how people can resolve the conflict between conscience and success. He suggests the answers to the first question are anger, spending too much time in the first world, fear and the yetzer ha-ra, a Hebrew phrase that is traditionally translated as "evil impulse" but Kushner translated it as a person's selfishness. However, he warns that humans cannot simply turn off the selfishness part of himself because it is behind the impulse to fulfill basic human needs. Therefore, the question still remains: How do people resolve the conflict between conscience and success or to be good and matter?

In order to answer this question, Kushner uses the biblical story of Jacob’s transformation as his frame of reference; he offers readers a model for how humans resolve the conflict between conscience and success. Resolving this conflict also helps readers to resolve other conflicts, such as how to choose between two good things; resolving moral dilemmas; or discovering the ultimate meaning of our lives by living with integrity.

In chapters entitled “The Two Voices God,” “How to Win by Losing,” “What Kind of Person Do You Want To Be” and “Why We Matter to the World”, Kushner helps readers become both good and to matter. Living a Life that Matters is an easy read that is filled with many thought-provoking reflections on Hamlet, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and Martin Luther King, Jr. For anyone who has compromised his integrity in the pursuit success, this compelling book will help readers to obtain success and to be good.