Meaning and work

I’ve been thinking about meaning and work since I read about Darcy Belanger, who was killed in the crash of Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 on 10 March.

He was a rising star, having been sent to the US by his Canadian construction company to take charge of professional development in the new operation there. His role was to foster talent, something close to my heart. It was a promotion for Darcy, who’d risen up through the ranks in his 14 years with the company. He was in his mid-40s.

What took him to Ethiopia, though, was a higher calling. He was going to a UN environment conference in Nairobi to meet ministers from around the world to get their support for turning the Arctic Ocean into an international peace sanctuary.

Years before he’d co-founded a charity called Parvati.org to promote the plan, because polar ice is Planet Earth’s air conditioning system and all species everywhere depend on it.

Parvati called Belanger “a force of nature”, saying he’d approach the highest-ranking officials without hesitation. His unofficial title was “quarterback”, and he attended all the big international meetings, Paris, New York, etc..

I’d like to think it made him better at his day job. Wiser, maybe, about what makes people tick, and what’s worth fretting over and what isn’t.