Attachments: Focus, Method, Calling, and Creation: On Charting a Professional Course

Abstract

Early in my career, I was asked what "T-shirt" I wanted to wear. It was not meant literally, of course, but as a way of asking what I really wanted to focus on in my work. It was a fair question. Twenty years on, I continue to find it difficult to answer. The problem for me lay in liking too many T-shirts but not any 1 so much as to want to make it my own. Having by now worn many an ill-fitting shirt throughout my professional career, and having arrived at certain midlife realizations regarding who I am (and more importantly, regarding who I am not), I would like to share what I have learned along the way.