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Friends United
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January/February 2008
Life-Work Author Speaks Out
Inspired by William (Bill) Charland’s book Life-Work and Charland’s interest in the relationship between career counseling and clearness committees, Katie Terrell, interim editor, sought an interview with the author. Their conversation follows:
K: Bill, I know you’ve had a great deal of experience as
a career counselor. Are there particular concerns you’ve seen in the careers
of Quakers?
B: I’d say the leading problem for most Friends is not so much building
a career as finding a vocation — a place where someone wants what we can
do. That’s also the greatest opportunity.
K: “Vocation.” What do you mean when you say that?
B: I mean a sense of calling. When one feels a leading to take on the
work one is doing and feels spiritually supported in it. “For this cause
I came into the world.” That’s the way one writer put it.
K: Can you give an example?
B: I can think of several instances in my own life: teaching in a predominantly
African-American college in Atlanta; helping defense workers who had lost
their jobs prepare to retrain for work in other fields; working with Friends
United Meeting to help a college in Kenya develop a computer laboratory.
My current involvement is with a Quaker-founded craft center in a border
town, finding retail outlets for the goods they’re producing. In each
case, I’ve felt needed in what I was doing, and the work seemed to fit
me.
K: Wow, that’s a wide range of activities. Have you changed
careers that often?
B: I’m basically an educator and a writer, but I’ve worked in five
or six different fields. And some of those vocational experiences came
as a volunteer. Of course, some people feel called to spend their lives
in the same line of work. But in order to respond to the needs of our
time, sometimes we may need to renew our skills and change focus.
K: Is that a good piece of advice for young Friends — be prepared to
change careers?
B: I think it is, and not just for young people. Today we find many
older Americans who may have retired but still have energy to invest in
something else. The question is: what?
K: What’s your advice for them, and for Friends in general?
B: In Life-Work, I offer a set of questions that I’ve often
recommended to others, and have turned to myself: What needs doing? What
can you do? What have you been learning?
K: I read a number of stories in your book about people you’ve known
as a career counselor and educator. One of them who stood out for me was
the woman who ended up a displaced homemaker looking for a job. She went
out and started a temporary employment service for other people who were
in the same boat.
B: We’re actually seeing more agencies like that these days as baby
boomers retire and there’s a need to recruit older workers back into the
workforce. But the larger principle, I think, is that the needs we experience
in our own lives can help us sense the unmet needs of others. The other
day, I read the story of a man who’d specialized in curing stuttering.
He’d been a stutterer as a child and said he became a speech pathologist
because he’d needed one. In the Christian life, at some level, we’re all
wounded healers.
K: “Wounded healers,” I love that. Are there particular ways in which
Quakers can help one another in our working lives?
B: I’ve had a number of meaningful experiences serving on clearness
committees with Friends.
K: I’ve heard that term, clearness committee, but what does it mean?
How does one function?
B: Basically, a committee is called together by a Friend who has a
particular problem or need. It may be anything from employment, to relationships,
to death and dying. The committee may be assembled by the meeting as a
whole, or by the individual. The group meets with the concerned Friend,
sometimes more than once, and basically tries to help by listening. Clearness
is sought not by giving advice, but by actively listening and sharing
silence. The objective is not to change the person; this isn’t therapy.
It’s basically a form of worship, seeking and sharing the Spirit in quietness.
K: Of course, the temptation will be to give advice — right?
B: You bet. And sometimes that’s appropriate. But a good clearness
committee will concentrate on holding the Friend in loving concern. It’s
an exercise in seeking “the Presence in the midst.” I’ve seen people make
some remarkable strides in their lives that way.
Bill Charland is a member of Gila Meeting in Silver City, New Mexico, where he serves as convener of the Ministry and Oversight Committee. He is the author of Life-Work: A Career Guide for Idealists (Friends United Press) and Soundings: A Novel (Wheatmark).
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