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Reflection Title: Meaningful Work Has the Power to Transform Us from Destroyers to Creators!

Book – The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary by Simon Winchester

Book Description:
The Professor and the Madman, masterfully researched and eloquently written, is an extraordinary tale of madness, genius, and the incredible obsessions of two remarkable men that led to the making of the Oxford English Dictionary -- and literary history. The compilation of the OED began in 1857, it was one of the most ambitious projects ever undertaken. As definitions were collected, the overseeing committee, led by Professor James Murray, discovered that one man, Dr. W. C. Minor, had submitted more than ten thousand. When the committee insisted on honoring him, a shocking truth came to light: Dr. Minor, an American Civil War veteran, was also an inmate at an asylum for the criminally insane.

Reflection:
This book came from a new friend I met recently during one of our anti book club meetings named Brook. She immediately jumped into the conversation and said that The Professor and the Madman was one of her favorite books she has ever read and highly recommended it. Again, the compound effect in action. Connecting with new people through the Anti Book Club, listening to others talk about impactful stories that have shaped them, feeding my own values that then turns into the Year of Magical Learning, sharing these reflections with the world, and who knows what happens next.

None of this is a coincidence, this is meaningful work and meaningful relationships in action. Like we learned in The Alchemist, when you truly want something, the whole universe conspires to make it happen. I’m on a mission and I truly want to help myself and others to find meaningful work and build meaningful relationships. I’ll do my part and trust the universe will deliver its part in time.

I get why Brook really enjoyed the Professor and the Madman so thoroughly. It was a great combination of learning about interesting historical topics that aren’t common knowledge but significant, like the making of the OED, and an incredible story of the lives of 2 people dedicated to bringing this meaningful work project to life. This book was like the author’s forensic account of all the little compound effect events that took place over the course of many lives, countries, time, and place that ultimately led to the creation of such a meaningful piece of work as the Oxford English Dictionary that has impacted the world greatly.

Making something like the OED is no easy feat, which I honestly had never really thought of once before in my life before reading this book. It took an incredible amount of time, energy, and tedious work over the course of 70 years to compile and complete by a small army of people. Think about that for a second, 70 years of hard work by hundreds and thousands of volunteers to bring this piece of art to life and into the world! That is truly incredible and makes me proud to be a human in a lot of ways.

People literally dedicated their lives to bringing this project to life in this world. One of those people was a convicted murderer, who had Schizophrenia, and was condemned to an insane asylum for the rest of his days. W. C. Minor was a mentally ill man and living in a time before a lot of these mental illnesses and basic treatments were even known or identifiable at the time. However, he accidentally found a sustainable treatment to his mental disorders and was able to find a way to create again in his life to make up for his destructive behavior through the power of meaningful work.

Through a chance advertisement in a book about the crowdsourcing efforts needed from volunteers to make the OED, he found his calling and meaningful work that could keep him focused and productive for the majority of the rest of his days. By combining what he already loved (reading and learning) and giving him a mission to help others, he was able to turn a life around from that of destructive sick person that murdered an innocent man to one of life of purpose and creation whose work ultimately benefited the world.

This power to focus our energy into a purpose to benefit the world around us is the exact reason why I’m so passionate about meaningful work. As we learned before, humans are composers. Our job is to create and bring new things to life in this world. That is what keeps us going and makes life worthwhile in my opinion. Without meaningful work in our lives, every single one of us are a lot closer to a destructive madman than we might even understand. However, meaningful work has the power to save lives, turn a madman sane, and give us a path to channel to turn what we love into ways to build up and better this world and the lives of those around us.

Question: What is your meaningful work that keeps you from going insane?