As soon as he was finished with grad school, a young man got the job of his dreams. He implemented all of the ideas that had been piling up inside his mind while he completed two years of coursework.  He flourished: “Everything I rolled out was a big hit. The feedback was excellent. People were pleased and grateful. I was kickin’ it.”

He quit 16 months later.

Institutional and corporate politics, bureaucracy, and inequity soured him. “I told myself in grad school that I would never be part of it. I promised myself that I would work in a way… in a place… in a field… that was above all that stuff.” 

All this took place five years ago.

Now he and his wife have three small children. He has a job that is boring, dull, and not related to his field of study. And he questions his decision to quit all those years ago: “What was I thinking? I was using my degree. My ideas were working. People were pleased. And no one was blocking me!”

He had quit because he couldn’t hold contradiction.

In Common Fire: Living Lives of Commitment in a Complex World (Daloz, Keen, Keen, and Parks, Beacon Press, 1996) four researchers interviewed 100 people who had sustained callings related to serving the common good. The study revealed that one common characteristic among people who were managing to keep their vocational commitments was the ability to hold contradiction. This is the capacity to work amidst the messiness of the human condition. It reflects a certain acceptance of imperfection, paradox, ambiguity, inconsistency, and hypocrisy–without losing one’s own integrity.

And without losing heart.

Those who can hold contradiction are able to stand strong and do good work within flawed environments without compromising their core values.

Teaching is labor intensive. We walk on the sacred ground of people’s lives. We help mediate the dreams and limits of students and their parents. We do it alone and together. Our schools, our colleagues, our administrators, and our very selves reflect the flaws of the human condition.

Like the young man, fresh out of grad school, some of us can’t hold contradiction. But in order to Sustain The Spirit fueling our commitment to teach, lead, and serve, maybe we should try.