The Sense of Process

In commenting on an unproductive person, one observer said, “[She] has no sense of process…. She wants the result without doing any of the work that goes to make it.” This is a compelling subject⎯the “sense of purpose”⎯the awareness of the thought, the skills, the talents, the work; the organizing and managing effort and energy that goes into producing anything. With Providence as first provider, plus what all others do⎯some think, some plan, some invent, some save, some invest, some add physical skill and effort⎯by all of this together, so much is brought into being. Now here, from several sources, are some words on the meaning of work: “Labor is the divine law of our existence,” said Mazzini. “Every man’ task is his life-preserver,” observed Emerson. “Work is as much a necessity to man as eating and sleeping.” “Work is not a curse,” said Calvin Coolidge, “it is the… only means to manhood, and the measure of civilization.” “There is no truer and more abiding happiness than the knowledge that one is free to go on doing, day by day, the best work one can do….” “None so little enjoy themselves,” said John Jay, “none are such burdens to themselves, as those who have nothing to do. Only the active have the true relish of life.” “I have lived to know,” said Adam Clarke, “that the great secret of human happiness is this: never suffer your energies to stagnate.” “The greatest asset of any nation,” added George B. Cortelyou, “is the spirit of its people, and the greatest danger that can menace any nation is the breakdown of that spirit⎯the will to win and the courage to work.” In all we have, let us never lose the sense of process, nor fail to be a fairly contributing part of that process. “All growth depends upon activity.”