A vocation, as opposed to a job, is not just what you do, it is a reflection of who you are. It is what your own nature demands that you do, rather than what you do for money. It is driven from within, rather than from without. When you follow your vocation, you are on an interior path; when you follow your profession, you are on an external, career path. That doesn’t mean you can’t make money at your vocation—ideally you will—only that money is meant to be the means to support it, no more and no less. If one prioritizes the job over the vocation, one is implicitly serving the Market at one’s own expense. As Joseph Campbell advised: follow your bliss.

To me writing has always been key to my vocation. It is about bringing an idea to life. This is what gives writing its meaning and purpose, and makes it a noble calling, if pursued with integrity. In order to be such a writer, one must often subordinate external demands, to the extent one is able, to the creative process, which will unfold the nature of the idea, and how best to express it, over time. This requires that one deny certain modern principles, which are based on production, in favor of more traditional virtues, like the life of the mind. Make no mistake about it: this can be brutally difficult today, on many levels, both social and economic. The challenge is how to survive these challenges as the idea unfolds.

Bringing an idea to life requires a book, which is why I do not practice journalism. For me writing a book is a two-part process. The exploratory stage is a purely philosophical inquiry, aimed at getting at the nature of the subject. This provides the foundation and structure for the book. The idea must then be presented in a form that is attractive to the reader. This means the writing has to be clear, concise, simple, rooted in concrete details, lively, balanced, interesting, and relevant to everyday life. If one achieves this, it will not only attract readers, but result in a work that is closer to the truth.

Ultimately that is what writing is all about: putting the truth on paper. This can be done in a myriad of ways, both fictional and non-fictional, but if your writing does not reflect the truth it is worthless.

There are two works I know of that speak most powerfully to these realities. These include a little-known work, The Art of Literature, by Arthur Schopenhauer, and a famous essay, “Self-Reliance” by Ralph Waldo Emerson. I have included them here accordingly.