Is that all there is?

My second daughter (Judy and I have four daughters) completed high school seven years ago. Sometime during high school she decided she wanted to be a doctor and she applied for admission to many medical schools. Unfortunately, although she achieved excellent results she didn't get into any of them and instead started a Science degree. She still wanted to be a doctor and investigated the various pathways open to her. At the end of first year Sarah applied again for entrance to a number of med schools and was offered a place interstate at the University of New South Wales. She had only a few days decide whether to turn all her plans for the following year on their head. To leave her group of friends and family and move to another state where she didn't know anyone. Sarah did take up the opportunity, which meant a lot of hardship for her. On top of the huge workload of a medical degree, she had to work to meet the higher costs of living away from home in another state.

Last week, seven years after leaving high school, Sarah graduated as a doctor (with honours). Judy and I and her three sisters all travelled up for the graduation which was a great occasion which we enjoyed immensely.

The Occasional Address was delivered by Professor Michelle Haber - and this is where I return to my theme. Professor Haber graduated a couple of years after me in the late 70s. After taking some initial changes in direction, she took up what was to be a lifelong calling - research into the causes and treatment of childhood cancer. She is currently director of the Childhood Cancer Institute Australia, a position she has held since 2000. Quoting from her bio "... she is known nationally and internationally for her research on delineating mechanisms of resistance to antic-cancer drugs in the treatment of nueroblastoma. Professor Haber has also been a key contributor in developing new approaches to improving the outcomes of children diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia."

As she was being introduced, we were told she was the key driver in the building works next to the auditorium in which we were sitting. As it turned out, the building we saw emerging from the ground was to be the home of the Lowy Cancer Research Centre.

It struck me as I was listening to Professor Haber being introduced how much a contribution to the community one person can make. It made consider how puny many of our aspirations are - especially our aspirations in business. How does a career in business compare with a career such as that of Michelle Haber? When we are in business, we think we are doing terribly important things. But are we really? Certainly we may be in a position where a lot of people depend on us. We may be in a position in which decisions we make affect the livelihood of a lot of people. Most people I speak with in business are aware of their responsibilities to those who depend on them but a lot of the time the focus appears to be solely on making money. How does any of this compare with the work of someone like Michelle Haber?

All this reminded me of the late 60s Peggy Lee song “Is that all there is?”. The song (written by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller) has a rich history. If you remember the song, you will remember the verse, in German cabaret style, is spoken rather than sung. This places its connection firmly with the German Existentialists. It seems the song was based on the story ‘Disillusionment’ by Thomas Mann. Here is a summary of the story taken from Colin Wilson’s book The Craft of the Novel :

The narrator is sitting in St Mark’s Square in Venice when he falls into a conversation with a fellow countryman. The man asks, “Do you know what disillusionment is? Not a miscarriage in small unimportant matters, but the great and general disappointment which everything, all of life, has in store?” He tells how, as a small boy, the house caught fire; yet as they watched it burn down he was thinking, “So this is a house on fire? Is that all?” And ever since then, life has been a series of disappointments; all the great experiences have left him with the feeling: “Is that all?” Only when he saw the sea for the first time, he says, did he feel a sudden tremendous craving for freedom, for a sea without a horizon... And one day, death will come, and he expects it to be the last great disappointment. “Is this all?

(My thanks to Lee Lady for this background.)

My point in all this is to ask “What is it for?" “What’s the purpose?” When we’ve climbed the corporate ladder and got to the top (or we’ve got to wherever we’ve got to) and we look back on our careers, will we be able to say we are happy with how we’ve spent our lives? Will we be able to say it was all worth it? So many of the people I speak with and read about in high flying corporate careers seem to have very little time to enjoy the spoils of their achievements. They’re mostly working 80 hour weeks. Why do they do it? Why do you do what you do?

I do believe we are all motivated by an “enduring purpose” and, to some extent, that purpose is shared. I don’t pretend to understand how we develop a sense of purpose or how there are elements of that purpose we share as a community. I don’t even know how to put that purpose into words. But I believe it is there. I believe also that when we connect with that purpose, whatever connecting with a purpose might mean for each of us, we tap into a source of creative energy and knowledge that enables us to achieve great things within our own sphere of influence.

My message of hope then for this festive season, and it is my hope, that when we live our lives in service of the purpose that motivates us, we will know that even if “that’s all there is” we will also know a sense of enormous satisfaction and we will know that somehow we have contributed to the greater good.