Maybe, it's because I have a son who is matriculating in a few months.  Or, because I have made a career in an ever changing industry.  Maybe, it's part of the natural aging process or just what it means to be an achiever in a capitalist society.

I don't know.  

Regardless, I've been turning a Rubik's cube in my mind.  How do I match the colors so that experience, skills, talents, personal goals, professional goals and family responsibility are all aligned?  Simply put, how do I answer the question "what do I want to be when I grow up?"

Now, don't get me wrong.  I don't spend very much time on this question but, like seaweed washing up on the beach it returns to the fore on a regular basis . 

Is this my purpose?  Is there more?

Of course, work is not the entirety of a person and an argument could be made that it doesn't even define a person.  But, I would argue that this is semantics for most of us.  The majority of everyone I know spends more time working than they do anything else.  More time than they spend teaching their kids how to throw a ball or drive or car or become a good citizen.  More time than they spend expressing their love of spouse or church or community.  More time than they devote to charity or hobbies.  For those of us commuting in the big city, we even spend more time working than we do sleeping.

This type of commitment to work makes the answer to the question of which work to do something more important than solving the puzzle of the Honestants and the Swindlecants.

While pondering the future and what it might bring I started thinking how I would answer the question when my children start to ask me.  How was the question answered in centuries and decades past?  What did Benjamin Franklin's father say to him when he asked?  Did he tell him to become a newspaperman?  A silversmith? A revolutionary?

When my grandfather posed the question, was he told to work for a big company so that he could enjoy a pension in his retirement ?  He worked for Kodak his entire career.  Was it a good move?  The right move?  Were children of the Sixties told not to work too hard and never to trust The Man?  Or, were they all told to go into plastics?

Then, two Sundays ago after reading an article in the business section of the newspaper, the answer came to me.  Now, regardless of which child asks or when they ask, the answer will always be the same:

Be what tomorrow needs.

The trick, of course, will be to figure out what tomorrow needs.  In terms of employment, the answer may not always be obvious but allow me to offer that tomorrow will always need courage, honesty, integrity, determination and perseverance. 

Tomorrow can also never have too much effort or humility or love or patience or commitment or kindness.

So, this will be my answer and I'd like to think that Ben Franklin's father would be proud.