I realize that it has been several weeks since I have written a “Weekly Update.” A couple of folks have asked if something has gone wrong, or if I had stopped trying to provide some sort of update regularly. Let me first apologize for not keeping up with my schedule as well I should have, and secondly let me say that the last few weeks have been full of “distractions.” Between my own bouts with illness and the fast pace at which the project has been moving, I have not been able to put many coherent thoughts together in my head lately, much less put them onto paper. I am sure that many of you can relate! I also want to share with you that I have had a case of “writer’s block” lately and really had no idea what was causing my inability to do something which I very much enjoy. I believe it started in the middle of one of my recent episodes of the stomach flu, and may have ended just last evening.
You see, several weeks ago someone, either a family member or a friend (I can’t remember which), asked me if I had ever seriously considered putting these weekly updates into a “book format,” a sort of inspirational pamphlet for those in the helping profession. The thought was intriguing and I began to think about what that type of project would look like, what it would entail, what the publishing realm would be like, on and on….  Suddenly, what I had been doing as a task of enjoyment and service became a task to produce a product! Hence, no more was I free in my own mind to think of things to say that might encourage, challenge, and even simply report what was going on to the people working on the project or those simply interested in reading about what it is that we are all still doing. Now, the thoughts were product focused, sort of like a job! I realized last evening, as I was standing outside watering the grass, that this thought process was the root of the “writer’s block.” I remembered that the work that we all do in service to others is not simply a job and that, if it were simply a job, hardly any of us would still be trying so hard to solve what seem to many to be unsolvable problems.

No, the work we do is more than just a job. It is who we are at our core: servants who are trying to make a difference in the lives of people within the communities in which we live. I truly believe that most of the folks who do this type of human services, helping professional work, are more instinctual than they are taught. You see, our instincts for working with people lead us into occupations that allow us to draw upon those inherent abilities. Many of us refine our instincts through education and training, but the best among us continue to rely on their instincts in order to achieve the best results with our clients. The moment at which we begin to focus on our work with a client as just a job, we lose our ability to tap into our instincts and natural abilities and begin to treat our work and our clients like numbers, or files. I am sure you have seen this in many of the long term social service organizations that are tremendously overwhelmed and underfunded. There is a sense that the workers there have lost “something” along their journey in the helping profession. Many of our colleagues and friends within these types of settings have lost the ability to be inspired by their work. I have been there, and have fought through the reality of my work with others as being “just a job.” So, I know that whenever I begin to think along those lines, my ability to think in creative ways is stifled. I believe that is what happened when the idea of a book was raised for me to consider.

I am fully aware that some of the things that I have written in the past have been inspiring to some, appreciated by others, and downright despised by some as well. I suppose that is the nature of the work that all of us do on a daily basis. Our challenge is to continue to believe and understand that our work is more than just a job, more than a task whose goal is to produce a product of some sort, and more than just trying to please everyone around us. Our work is humane, strategic, and faith-filled, and we must work to live up that “most high calling” in creative and energetic ways, and fight those thoughts which are designed to stifle our instincts and compassion. Maybe one day, when all of this work is done, I will once again consider compiling these updates into a book. Right now, I just want to get back to thinking creatively and trying to assist with solving the problems we have left in front of us. I pray that you are all still with me in that mission. Thanks for all that you have done and continue to do on behalf of those that you serve.

Bless you and have a great rest of the week!


Stephen P. Carr II, MA,  MFT
Program Director
Mississippi Case Management Consortium
www.mc-mc.org