For a purpose, But also
In my last post, I quoted Eric Liddell:
I believe God made me for a purpose, but he also made me fast. And when I run I feel His pleasure.
This quote has stuck with me for decades, I guess it’s because I resonate with Liddell’s faith, and I also became a fast runner back in my college days. Nowadays, though, it resonates with me in a completely different and more profound way.
Last November I had the opportunity to travel to Malmö, Sweden. I needed some time to myself, so I gladly accepted the invitation to speak at Øredev. While I was there, I took advantage of my freedom and did quite a lot of reading, thinking, and writing from my miniature and utterly Scandinavian hotel room. It was in that little room that I had an apostrophe.
Through a series of readings, I found myself inside of Christopher Alexander’s “Network of Learning” pattern from A Pattern Language. I’d read it before, but this time it struck me like a bolt of lightning. Over the last 7 years, I had memorized and internalized the premise of the pattern:
In a society which emphasizes teaching, children and students - and adults - become passive and unable to think or act for themselves. Creative, active individuals can only grow up in a society which emphasizes learning instead of teaching.
On that cloudy day in Malmö, though, I finally was ready to absorb the sentence that followed the premise:
Instead of the lock-step of compulsory schooling in a fixed place, work in piecemeal ways to decentralize the process of learning and enrich it through contact with many places and people all over the city.
I got stuck on that sentence for a good long while and eventually sat up, realizing that this sentence described my purpose. Since that moment, this sentence has been in the back of my mind every single day. It helps me understand why apprenticeship and self-directed learning have always been so important to me. And having this sentence in mind has helped me describe to friends and colleagues what I want to work on in the decades ahead. It’s like a filter on all of my interactions that dampens some ideas and amplifies others. It led me to the Chicago Technology Academy and John Seely Brown’s New Culture of Learning. It has pushed me more strongly into supporting people like Gregory Brown’s RbMU and Neal Sales-Griffin’s ideas about a “code academy” in Chicago. And I know these are just the tip of the iceberg.
I feel extremely fortunate to have already found opportunities to work in piecemeal ways in Chicago. To participate in the progress, even on a micro-scale, toward the purpose for which I was created, is a beautiful experience.
I was eating lunch with Neal a couple weeks ago when he asked me about my story of switching from family therapist to software developer. Maybe it was because Neal was a sprinter in high school, but I ended the story with the Liddell quote. And then, unexpectedly, I spontaneously adapted it for me:
I believe God made me for a purpose: to help decentralize learning. But He also made me a natural programmer. And when I code I feel His pleasure.
The self-insight this adapted quote gives me is priceless.
I don’t know how helpful this blog post will be to anyone other than me. I’m blogging it publicly so I can more easily look back on it when I need to refocus on what it is I’m here for. If on the off chance you feel your purpose is parallel to mine, or there is an intersection, don’t hesitate to leave a comment or email me.
