Intelligence, sight and the rest of the senses are usually oriented outwards, towards the reality that surrounds us, among many reasons, to know and discover the beauty of things. However, around us not only the elements of nature stand out, but also people, “the others”, who also summon, seduce and surprise. In response, man becomes a kind of hiker through the courtyard of others. As a result of the tour, in the back room of others, stones of all kinds are found: precious, colored, of various shapes, rough, pointed, strong, fragile, small, large… etc. However, the characteristics, decoration, luminosity and location of the courtyards, without a doubt, add value and attractiveness to the stones. The courtyard and the elements it contains, give rise to valuing and highlighting the diversity of vocations, talents and circumstances. This multicoloured and varied landscape should be a reason for joy, because it cooperates with the growth of a society’s economy and with the increase in a demand that is increasingly refined to accommodate the diversity of talents and qualities.
Man is capable of configuring mythical plots according to his imagination, sensitivity or vanity; as well as dreaming of living in the courtyards of those who are attributed the epithet of “rich and famous.” The look at the courtyard of others is mostly partial and biased: one sees what one does not have, or what dazzles one the most. This look becomes positive when one tries to reduce the absence with the effort of acquiring a quality; and, in the second, when one enjoys because the good is distributed and extended without being exhausted in a single person. The diversity of vocations, tastes, qualities, jobs, etc., should be a reason for gratitude to God because he has subdued and diminished monotony.
However, man does not resolve or fulfill his existence by being an observer. His thing is to be the protagonist, the main actor in the great graphic, written, sound, epic, relational, grieving and always hopeful story of his own life. Our story is not a succession of events that surprise us, as if it were the plot of a story being told. It is a biography that does not consist of composing flat scenarios or dialogues, without relief, without flexibility or movement. Quite the opposite. The richness of his writing lies in the fact that the plot, the argument and the strokes keep, in correct harmony, grammar and beauty, the characteristics and talents of his own with what the environment offers, demands or demands.
Ordinarily, a bond is established between man and his environment that only lasts when they leave their mark with plasticity and influence each other reciprocally. Without a doubt, fragmentation due to enmity or excessive dependence comes as an effect of man’s decisions. The environment with its facts, events or situations appears before man, not exclusively so that he knows its laws, uses and customs, but so that he finds or attributes a meaning or purpose to them. Specific situations inscribed in a certain context, their interpretation or reflection can be approached, separately or in perfect fusion, from three categories: a) as given; b) from a vocational perspective; and c) as an input for personal development.
As given
The first category includes everything that one has received without direct participation: genetic inheritance, family, country, talents, sex, among many others. Faced with what is given, there are two positions: a) nature (God) made a mistake with me; b) he did not make a mistake, but… Assuming that life is the product of a mistake would be like living in others or leaning against a wall wearily watching the clock inexorably mark the cadence of the hours that pass; that is, letting time pass without putting your personal mark on it.
I will stop at this point, but follow it with an ellipsis from the second option, because it becomes an invitation to participate as a principal partner in the configuration of the personal project. Taking possession of oneself is a task of the first order. Looking at oneself with the intention of knowing oneself, not with the aim of becoming a scholar of one’s own self; but rather, with the purpose of self-knowledge illuminating and illuminating the permanent and repeated responsibility of taking charge of “who one is” in order to open oneself to the epic moment of self-acceptance.
Human beings are not one-dimensional, but rather multidimensional in their actions, actions, thoughts, hobbies, tastes and interests, etc. In other words, their development has to do with attention to the needs of their body, their intelligence, their spirit, their social and emotional needs. By the way, this requirement is not easy to live with in balance, since emphasizing one over another or others problematizes the path to the integral growth of the person. Likewise, it is worth noting that the requirements of all the aforementioned human dimensions cannot be attended to or satisfied simultaneously and in the present. From this perspective, one can sense or perceive a certain profile of interests, talents or tendencies that each person has, but be unaware of or unable to glimpse the field or fields of their possible application. There are many reasons. Among them, time, maturity, opportunity, occasion, market, contacts, etc.
Vocation and personal development
Finally, the vocational character gives substance to a certain area, in which human action concurs in genuine synthesis and novelty between what has been received and what has been acquired, thanks to studies, experiences, reflection, friends… Man communicates, contributes to his environment from his exquisite condition of being unique and unrepeatable. In this sense, whoever refuses to communicate his talents goes against his personal achievement, which, in essence, is to suspend the impression of his vocational imprint and, therefore, singular, in the course of history, of his biography hosted in a certain space.
The inputs offered by the environment, the possibilities and limits of what has been “received” and the great discovery of the vocational character of life, depend on a human factor, too human, clothed in divinity, I refer to freedom. To that capacity, which after deliberating and deciding, leads us not only to direct ourselves towards an end, but to accept it and love it. Man is free by nature, but the experience of choosing is always new and new for each one. Fire is an element of nature known by all, but for some it will be used for lighting, others will use it to cook their food, not a few to keep warm at home; it can also be used to light the fuse of a homemade bomb with the aim of intimidating; that same fuse will be used by miners and, others, when looking at the fire, will take shelter so as not to burn themselves…. The same element and many meanings. With the distance, the same thing happens in professional, social and personal life. Freedom guarantees the plurality of possibilities, which is always good, to review them, look at them, or shake them, as tennis players do before the game. Not all are equally consistent, we must choose those possibilities that have the greatest prospects of making us better and fuller.