On The “Off Ramp”

FRI., NOV. 17, 1995, 1:12 PM
OFFICE, PULLIAM

The task you put off until this last day has been accomplished. You have evaluated, in a cursory way, the 11 candidates in your College for promotion, and, for some, tenure. You went through that process 26 years ago, and in these last years of your professional career you are judging the “new crop”. I am quite aware of your thoughts as you have completed this assignment, so, naturally, I have some thoughts to share with you. This has to do, of course, with priorities, and so you have to be here, writing what you hear from Me. Fortunately, you held that as a priority today (responding to My urging).

This reading of dossiers emphasized again the “super highway” you’ve been on for, what, 38 years. You had your earlier teaching and coaching responsibilities and opportunities, plus the “dean thing” and a taste of community health educating. When you accepted the challenge of the faculty position at Stanford you felt sure you could “produce” sufficiently to be a success, in your own eyes and in the judgment of others. Throughout those next years of your career you were productive, but it doesn’t seem, in retrospect, that the “speed on the highway” was as fast and as competitive as it is now. Actually, I tell you, you need have little concern for such comparisons. You have had a fine career, in strong and supportive institutions, and now you are on the “off ramp” of that “superhighway.” It’s a good place for you to be, and you agree.

I remind you that during those years when it was vital that you be “productive”, by the university’s standards, I did not ask for your time and attention as I do now. With your family, and other responsibilities My “intrusion” into your life would have been very frustrating. (I was a bit “premature” with My call to Mabel, which had some adverse effects on her parental role. I decided not to do that with you, having given you Lenore as your best life partner. Aren’t you glad about My “time-table”?!)

But now I have been with you for over 16 years, and I’m pretty well pleased with your responses to My invitations. These are of little value in your professional CV, but you know they are important to you and to several in your profession. You were enough of a competitive participant in your life-work’s journey that it is still somewhat troubling to not be “producing” as you once did. I won’t be satisfied if you don’t complete at least what you’ve begun, but, finally, I am pleased with your priorities. The way you did this “administrative task” made it only mildly onerous (as with this prospectus later today). Be increasingly cautious on this “off ramp” regarding low priority assignments.

Life is to be increasingly enjoyed. You have enjoyed most of what you’ve done, even that which was required rather than freely chosen. Yet this enjoyment is to be increasingly linked with non-attachment. You are to continue committed to your part in the profession, but not attached to it. Enjoy the activities up to the last day, and then leave it in order to enjoy “what’s next”. And all of this is sort of preparation for giving up you bodily, earthly life… not being attached to it. As that old Indian Ram Dass, told about by your old professor, was active, but unattached, so, increasingly, should you be.

Remember Charity, with real love, but accept that she has left this life. Next year she can be “replaced”, as you select a new canine companion to love. You can miss her, of course, but life goes on, with death as a positive factor.