Beauty.

Let the beauty of what you love be what you do.

~~Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Balkhī (Rumi)

(If you don’t know about Rumi, you can read all about him here and here.)

Passion.

I’ve talked  about being an evaluator before.  (You can also read about that love here and here.) The word that best describes what I do is passion. I do what I love and there is beauty in that.

There was a time that I could not read enough about evaluation. (I spoke about that here.)

Now, I reflect on the past 30+ years and on that passion, that love, that beauty.

I did/do what I love and love what I did/do.

So I went looking for images that captured that passion. That love.

I found a lot:

Don’t know if I changed the world for the better (that was my goal).

   My passion became my purpose.

   I find passion more than an emotion (certainly emotionality adds to the passion).

   Emotionally disturbed children and evaluation. They each captured my heart. Evaluation caught my heart the longest.

                                       Reading excessively did that.

            I didn’t settle. That is the lesson I taught.

Wisdom.

Mandela was a wise person. As was Gandhi. So were a lot of people. I hope I mirror some of that wisdom.

Evaluation is important. I suppose evaluation could be considered “make work” profession EXCEPT that making a difference is not “make work”; it is important. And if there are scholars, that is good. If there are practitioners, that is good also. There are folks who make a difference in the world. And that it good. Very good. Evaluators make a difference. Wisdom is found there. That is the beauty of the work; that is the love of the work.