Service — The Call to Work in the World

Robert Coles, The Call of Service: A Witness to Idealism
     Houghton Mifflin, 1994          ISBN 0395710847
     

Marc Freedman, Encore: Finding Work that Matters in the Second Half of Life
     Public Affairs, 2007          ISBN 1586484834
      Baby boomers are inventing a new phase of work. It’s one of the most significant trends of the new century, and the biggest change in the American workforce since the women’s movement. Marc Freedman tells the stories of these encore career pioneers, who are working not only for continued income, but for the promise of more meaning and the chance to do work that matters. As their numbers begin to swell, these individuals hold the potential to transform work in America — and create a society that works better for everyone.

Marc Freedman, Prime Time: How Baby Boomers Will Revolutionize Retirement and Transform America
     Public Affairs, 1999          ISBN 1891620177
      By 2030 nearly one quarter of the population will be 65 or older; by 2050, for first time ever, there will be more of us over 65 than under 18. One of the most stunning features of this trend is the increase in American life expectancy by thirty years since the turn of the century, an increase greater than all of the previous gains over the past 5,000 years. The end result is a new stage of life, one as long or longer in duration than childhood or middle age and one spent in unprecedented good health. Despite the dire predictions regarding the depletion of resources and strains on families, Marc Freedman casts the aging of America in a positive light, identifying it not so much as a problem to be solved, but as an opportunity to be seized -- provided we can learn to engage the experience, and talent, of older adults. At a juncture when the middle-generation is in the midst of a time-famine, struggling to simultaneously raise kids and work long hours on the job, the older generation is awash in free time, poised to abandon the state of limbo unfulfilling for most older Americans. Freedman argues that the trend many portray as our downfall may in fact be our best hope for social renewal.

David Whyte, Crossing the Unknown Sea: Work as a Pilgrimage of Identity
     Riverhead Books, 2002          ISBN 1573229148
      Crossing the Unknown Sea follows the stages of a holy pilgrimage as the path to finding fulfillment and awakening our deepest identities through our work. It includes a mix of poetry, stories from the workplace front, an unusual take on the industrial revolution, and David Whyte's own search for meaning through work. The stages are: Longing for refuge, Finding the strength to begin the journey, Desiring growth, Overcoming obstacles, Avoiding distractions, Connecting: meeting and traveling with others with a common purpose, and Helping others: a desire to bring hope and help to those left behind. Whyte is a poet and powerful writer.