Our culture prevents us from attaining a balance between social claims to the engagement of helping others and attaining personal fulfillment. As Addams argued, the social claim implies having the fulfillment of family needs failure to which leads to sufferings in society. Inequalities in society mean that we are not equal. One family may have all it needs to lead a meaningful life, whereas another may lack all the basic needs.
Similarly, one child may have the opportunities to succeed in life while another may live in a society that not only limits his success rates but also puts him or her in danger through unlawful activities. Addams spent her life advocating for immigrants and their chances of getting work. She was of service to the society by fighting for the family claim where children are protected against facing atrocities caused by their mothers having to work fulltime.
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Addams had the standing that authorities should always strive towards creating opportunities for good, clean, fun, as well as recreation in their areas of operation. This brings the idea of leisure as an essential part of one’s life. Leisure is a necessity primarily due to the pressures that people have to deal with from all areas. For example, parents working two jobs to meet the needs of their families need leisure for them to succeed in life. Family is important if people are to be committed to personal fulfillment. Consequently, there can be no personal fulfillment without one embracing leisure as an essential component of one’s life. As argued by Addams, this concept of personal fulfillment should be made part of our culture and taught across generations.
With society having to deal with many pressures, people should seek purposeful work. The only way to feel alive is by ensuring that one’s work provides purpose and fulfillment ( Popova, 2015) . Many people talk of work-life balance if they can meet the needs of their jobs and those of their families. Work-life balance implies that one’s work provides purpose. In my experience, I always feel satisfied if I work at a place where I do not feel pressure, have flexible scheduling, and I have time for my leisure. Children carry the burden of having their parents having to work for long hours. As argued by Addams, mothers should not be made to work fulltime if they have to take care of their children. Spending time with one’s family during a leisure activity makes life worth living and provides meaning to one’s life.
Service to others forms one of the central tenets of most religions, as established by Fr. Boyle. He argues that the privileged have the duty of assisting the less privileged in any society. For instance, Fr. Boyle worked with young people from impoverished communities in Los Angeles ( Fr. Boyle, 2006) . His clients lacked opportunities but needed to succeed despite the risk of abusing drugs, being killed, or ending in jail. To him, being of service to others implies showing compassion and kinship to those who do not have equal chances. He found purposeful work in assisting those who were out on parole, and reformed gang members get their feet in the society. Helping others is what gave Fr. Boyle some personal fulfillment even when he was fighting cancer ( Fr. Boyle, 2006) . His is an example of how one can deal with the conflict of being of service to others, meeting personal fulfillment, and meeting the needs of the family. The society is unequal, and we have to live for each other.
References
Fr. Boyle. (2006). HU 366 Fr Boyle [Video]. Retrieved from https://www.kaltura.com/index.php/extwidget/preview/partner_id/425001/uiconf_id/28707512/entry_id/0_7amnuhta/embed/dynamic ?
Popova, M. (2015, September 18). Why We Lost Leisure: David Steindl-Rast on Purposeful Work, Play, and How to Find Meaning in the Magnificent Superfluities of Life. Retrieved from https://www.brainpickings.org/2014/12/22/david-steindl-rast-leisure-gratefulness/
