I am an airline pilot for one of the major airlines. During Covid I took a reserve schedule which required that I wait at home for a call when needed. Because of Covid the calls were rare which put a lot of free time on my hands. To fill this time I volunteered at a nearby drug-rehab ministry for men. This decision would prove to be life changing.

My job there was simple. I would spend time with the men, get to know them and mentor them. This was a difficult task at first. It took awhile for the men to accept me into their midst and to open up. Before long I became a familiar face to them and in return they transformed from a room full of nameless faces into individuals for me, each with his own story.

Many had fairly horrid histories, though not all. Many had no leadership figure to help guide them though this complicated maze we call life, though not all could make that claim. Some didn’t seem to have a will of their own. I’m not sure where that came from. The issues were myriad and the problems were diverse. The outlook for all but a few was more often than not bleak, even if they did manage to gain some semblance of control over themselves.

Early on I was warned by the staff that I would love these men, and that many would die, and it would break my heart. From the perspective of the sterile world in which I existed at the time this was a difficult thing to believe. But it turned out to be true. This would be time spent on the front lines against every sort of evil and people dying around me was a common occurrence.

This blog comes from many of the discussions that I had with these men. My goal is to keep each post below 500 words. As I write I see my audience as mainly young men who’ve had no training in wisdom in the work place. My mission is shorter, bite-size articles with the aim of self-analysis, self-correction and a challenge of seeing and experiencing the possibilities when we seek wisdom and understanding then apply both to our selves.

We will spend much of our lives “at work” and I am convinced that there will always be room to improve our attitudes about being there, which in turn improves our overall outlook on life. The benefit for all of us is that if we can improve our outlook toward our daily work it will make us happier human beings, and when we are happier human beings we become happier servants* which makes us even happier human beings yet. The end result helps us to not feel the need to seek escape from the drudgery of “making a living”, but rather to embrace the idea of serving our fellow man.

_______________________________________________________________________________

*There is intentionality in my use of the word “servant“. I believe that one way to improve our outlook while on the job is to realize that, no matter what our profession, in the end we serve others. As an airline pilot, for example, I serve our passengers. In our current times we tend to reject the notion that we are servants. But I believe that by embracing the idea of serving others we have taken an important step toward happiness in the work place and at home.