Callings: The Purpose and Passion of Work

Sol Aramendi, an artist and educator, talks with her student, Cyntia Gomar. Sol recalls moving from Buenos Aires to New York and having difficulty adjusting to her new home. She began taking photographs of New York and realized that photography helped her “arrive in New York” and accept her new home (183).

To share this lesson, she teaches photography to other immigrants in Spanish. That is how she met Cyntia, who came from Mexico at 16 and worked in a factory until she became a full-time mother. She takes Sol’s photography class, which teaches her to let go of her past and see the city differently. Photography makes her feel free.

Cyntia says she is a New Yorker now and tells Sol, “[B]efore I started your class, I was in a room with a closed door, and you opened the door for me” (185).

Ted Dennard talks with his friend, Clay Culver, about being a beekeeper. Ted learned about beekeeping as a child from a man named Roy, who kept beehives on Ted’s father’s land. He learned about different kinds of honey and how they tasted, and he was hooked. A few years later, Roy died, and Ted took over the care of his bees.

Ted says that in the beginning, he feared being stung, but once the fear goes away, the joy starts. Clay asks him what he loves so much about beekeeping, and Ted compares it to rock climbing or surfing: “[W]hen you’re doing it, you don’t think about anything else” (188). For him, the experience is all-encompassing.

The bees teach Ted how to live with a “give-in-order-to-receive” attitude (189). He even tries to emulate the bees in the way he runs his honey business. The way he learned to be calm among the beehives also helps him to be calm with business difficulties.

Josh Gippin speaks with his grandmother, Rose Brudno, about owning a bar. Rose explains that in 1959, as she was getting divorced, she bought a bar called Zanzibar, where she worked 12-hour days. She was respected because she did not tolerate drunks or men harassing her waitresses. She even tried to start a union for her workers and then started profit sharing when that failed.

Josh remembers breaking up with a girlfriend as a teenager. Rose put him to work cleaning at the bar and brought him “down to earth” with her no-nonsense attitude.

Eventually, Rose suffered from health problems that required her to quit, and the building was claimed for urban renewal. Rose remembers her years running the Zanzibar and building a community there as the best years of her life.

Leonard “Len” Berk talks with his friend, Joshua Gubitz, about being a salmon slicer. Len spent decades as an accountant, not because he loved it but because it supported his family. When he retired, he saw a job ad for a lox slicer and decided he wanted to do that. The shop owner did not understand why a retired certified public accountant would want to slice fish but hired him anyway.

Len wants every slice to be the best slice he can make and calls the experience between him, his knife, and the fish “sensual” and “Zen” (196). He talks about helping difficult customers find a kind of salmon to suit their tastes and dealing with complaints about his slices.

Now that he has been doing it for a while, he wants his slices to have “more style, more character—more panache” (197). When his wife asks him what he plans to do with the rest of his life, he says he is doing what he wants to do, and someday, he will make the perfect slice.

Clarence “Clancy” Haskett and his former colleague, Jerry Collier, talk about being beer vendors at a baseball stadium. Clancy has worked as a beer vendor since 1974 and was hooked from the first day. Jerry came to work with him in 1984. They recall the competitions between the vendors in the stadium, the list of top sellers, and the tricks vendors use to sell more.

Jerry explains that to be a vendor, one must be “athletic, personable, visible, fast—and be able to process a lot of information” (200). One colleague working on an engineering degree created elaborate mechanical devices to pour beer faster. Clancy, however, believes you do not need fancy equipment to sell more beer, you just need a strong personality.

Jerry calls Clancy a “ray of sunshine” and the person he wants to be (201). Jerry tells Clancy, “[Y]ou epitomize to me all that’s right in the world” (202), because he maintains a positive attitude about any setback in life.

Arnie Knapp, a coach bus operator, speaks with his wife, Judy Knapp. Arnie drives buses for bands and other performers, and he is usually on the road 300 days out of the year. He estimates that the most time he and his wife have spent together in one block is about six weeks. Judy says the time apart is difficult. Wives with husbands who tour—the musicians, crew, managers, and drivers—call themselves “road widows” (205).

Arnie feels fortunate to have an understanding wife who takes on so much responsibility for the family when so many other drivers have had multiple marriages. The job isn’t as glamorous as some think, yet he starts to long for the road whenever he stays home too long. He believes that everyone who tours feels the same way.

Paquita Williams, a subway conductor, talks with one of her passengers, Laura Lane. Paquita initially went to school to be a fashion designer but soon learned that work in fashion is tenuous and fleeting. Instead, she decided to find something more stable and worked in public transit.

As a conductor, she enjoys talking with people in the subway and takes pride in helping people during emergencies. She met Laura when the train was stuck on the tracks without power for several hours. When people got nervous, Paquita walked through the train, calming people and joking with them to make them feel more at ease.

Laura says that Paquita makes everyone on the train feel human and connected. Paquita wants to support people and be a comforting presence.

Congressman Jim Clyburn speaks with his granddaughter, Sydney Reed. Jim explains that he never wanted to do anything but politics. He enjoys the “give-and-take” (213), but more importantly, he enjoys being involved in important issues as a Black man from the segregated South.

He recalls winning the South Carolina House of Representatives primary in 1970 and feeling enormous pride before eventually losing the general election. He refused to give up and kept running for office until he won a seat in Congress. A voice within him urged him to continue. Just as the state seal of South Carolina reads, “[W]hile I breathe, I hope” (215), Jim believes he should never give up hope.

Darlene Lewis, an employment counselor, speaks with her friend and employee, James Taylor. Early in her career, Darlene realized that some young people have difficulty navigating employment and finding jobs, so she started teaching high schoolers how to fill out job applications and do interviews. Then, she transitioned to helping people with felony backgrounds find work after their release.

She met James, who spent seven years in prison and could not find a job afterward. Darlene helped him find work, starting at a McDonald’s, where he eventually became a manager. Now he works with her to help children from parentless or impoverished backgrounds. He knows that people are waiting to see him fail again, but he is proud of who he has become.

Darlene knew the day she met James that he had a good heart and would succeed in life. Helping people like him gets her out of bed every day. She admires his “willingness to stick” and work hard to improve himself and others (220).

Miranda Louise talks about her experience as a waitress and blues singer. She works in Brown’s Diner in Nashville, one of the oldest restaurants in the state. She initially arrived in Nashville to be a blues singer and got a job at Brown’s because it supports artists and offers flexible schedules.

Thirteen people run the diner, “thinkers and artists and songwriters and musicians, people who don’t necessarily want to wear a suit and a tie” (221-22). The owner treats the staff like family, and all the staff support each other. Everyone at Brown’s feels a responsibility for the job. Even when it is difficult, they keep going.

Miranda concludes by saying, “[I]f you’re lucky enough to walk into a situation in which you fit, recognize it. […] As soon as you recognize it, grab it. Stay there” (223).