Called to broaden my horizon
Scheible, John
CALLED TO BROADEN MY HORIZON AN ENGINEER TAKES HIS KNOCKS JOHN SCHEIBLE erhaps the great•"¦"¦¦"¦"«¦¦ est constant in...
...It's that simple...
...Changing weather fascinates, surprises, and sometimes terrifies me...
...CALLED TO BROADEN MY HORIZON AN ENGINEER TAKES HIS KNOCKS JOHN SCHEIBLE erhaps the great•"¦"¦¦"¦"«¦¦ est constant in the w^m^ammmmmmmm^mmmm^ midst of so much change in my life """""¦^¦"¦^¦¦i* js jjje beneficent •aa_rf__MMaaHi presence of others...
...He was a wise man...
...like a flower of the field he blooms...
...What a transforming experience...
...We often have to figure that one out for ourselves...
...4) propose a design up to my standards...
...The first book we read was Church Dogmatics in Outline, by Karl Barth...
...He sure didn't look or sound like Chuck Yeager (then again, neither did I...
...All your breakers and your billows pass over me...
...I stopped repeating it .blindly, with no clue as to what it really meant...
...The project engineer, as the spokesman and center of the team, is challenged at every stage of the project life...
...What's in this for me...
...My analysis showed the potential of developing much higher pressures in a big hurry...
...The presence of others in positive ways can't be overstressed...
...He came into the office during a brief remission to say hello...
...What religious images mean something to me here and now...
...I was told: "No need to ask questions, son, just install it, dammit...
...a practicing engineer in a large chemical company...
...Our contributor this time is John Scheible...
...Freshman year I stumbled into a great course in theology...
...We work on specific installations of capital (equipment and machinery...
...When they change they indicate I am moving on to new horizons...
...About that same time I began to have questions about my faith...
...The entire experience — the book, the students (and new friends), the professor and teaching assistant — was an unexpected delight...
...All clear" was the answer...
...The guy with the "right stuff " suddenly is on the verge of tears...
...There were more solutions, some even better than mine...
...It is our job to analyze the risks in a certain design and to reduce them to an "acceptable" level...
...The next few months were nightmarish for him and his family...
...Not long after, I learned from my mentor that he had just been diagnosed with a brain tumor...
...Yes, there were folks who said: "It means what it says...
...It's an acceptance of personal limitation, but also a powerful image of a church that cannot be described totally or even most appropriately by words, pronouncements, and orders...
...Sound boring...
...This creed was very troublesome...
...A lightning bolt at twelve o'clock changed all that...
...I had a mentor when I first arrived...
...He had a very positive outlook on life...
...That passage hits me a little too close for comfort...
...and (5) stand by that view...
...The pilot let out a howl that could be heard for miles...
...I shudder as I remember the moment — the sense of unease at how little I could comfort him and how utterly useless my offer of prayer seemed...
...Today I work at a multinational chemical company as a chemical engineer...
...It seems to me an acceptance that reflects the attitude that we all need each other, have something to learn from and to give to others...
...The technical details involved containing pressures of over 4000 psi...
...Commonweal, began a series in anticipation of this coming October's synod on the laity...
...Because of the example of my family and friends, I had a definite sense that the answers to those questions would be important for me...
...I found my friend's reaction rather humorous...
...3) seek out help from others...
...I'm a selfmotivated, independent person...
...There's a sense that this material is unfiltered by kindly bureaucrats wishing to save me from difficult theological concepts...
...My career and life depend on my respect for and knowledge of law...
...The presence of real commitment, positive encouragement of fellow workers (and especially from those with seniority), often creates the atmosphere necessary for positive results...
...We radioed Flight Service for the latest local weather and radar report...
...It very EDITOR'S NOTE: In July...
...It is people in their everyday lives: basketball players, students, professors, engineers, pilots...
...With some effort I came up with a credible solution...
...We had been flying for about an hour or so when the visibility and ceiling began slowly to diminish...
...Looking back on the experience, my foes, most of whom were older and very suspicious of new technology and engineers, take on a warm, humorous look...
...He taught the importance of teamwork and of gaining the respect of others, and of "bridging the gap" between the engineers in different disciplines...
...Eleven years later I find many more images that motivate and to some extent describe me: engineer, pilot, pianist, tennis player, boyfriend, and believer...
...The resolution was my job...
...my help, and my God" (Psalm 42...
...Foghorn's response showed his proud contempt of a new concept and young roosters: "Boy, I say, boy, I say whatcha got your nose in that book there for, son...
...was leading the chorus...
...Actually, I have been describing what I think of as church...
...Certain images, adjectives, and roles have formed my selfimage at different points...
...My view of God is influenced by this realization...
...I forgot my loss as I wondered at how much more he was than what I knew...
...In high school my predominant self-image was "athlete...
...In fact, my life cannot be fully explained by laws and decrees...
...The scenery and perspective dazzle and enchant...
...When I thought I had a solution, he pointed out that it had limits and conditions...
...Actually, he was saying goodbye...
...He was the guy everyone loved being around — full of good humor, interested in you right here and now, eager to teach and to learn...
...The experience affected him — the cigarette smoking, the beer gut, the disaster area of a desk...
...Yet it didn't seem so to me...
...Yet technical complexity across disciplines, potentially dangerous processes and equipment, and business pressures often create a very different climate...
...He never told me what to do on my projects...
...They read his poetry...
...The goal is to provide a manufacturing unit capable of producing certain chemical products safely and efficiently within a fixed budget and time frame...
...Then we have to argue for that analysis and solution...
...People saw it and were drawn to him...
...I remember the famous cartoon character, Foghorn Leghorn, walking up to the little rooster (me in this case) who was reading a book on how to design a new and better trap for a "chicken hawk...
...My horizon includes the standard "church" elements, but that is a subset of the greater arena where the Lord meets me...
...The dangers of explosions, fires, and lethal gas leaks are familiar to all practicing chemical engineers...
...Thomas, but by me...
...We communicate the technical scope and cost to management for approval, organize the team and focus it on the mission ahead, write status reports at various critical times, define and maintain interrelationships between the people in different disciplines, and define tests that ensure the facility has met the objectives and all legal requirements...
...The Psalms individually and collectively move me more powerfully than any other book...
...But this was no cartoon...
...Perhaps the best illustration of my questioning was my reaction to the Nicene Creed...
...The short-term consequences were not pleasant...
...I am fortunate to attend a parish where this presence of people in all their wondrous display of talent, joy, anger, and peace is accepted...
...This self-image defines how I see the others in my life...
...It felt so empty...
...The operation was inherently dangerous...
...What a shock to the everyday mood of the office...
...We asked a number of lay people to reflect on how their Catholic faith is lived out daily, particularly in the workplace...
...He had just experienced a divorce...
...At one point he broke down and cried...
...The inquiry into the Challenger shuttle disaster posed just such an atmosphere: Senior people putting on the "business hat" (also referred to as a frontal lobotomy) becomes an excuse for neglecting expert opinion and data...
...I miss him now and remember him in the words of the psalmist: "Man's days are like those of grass...
...Which brings me to the church...
...Beware of the rush job...
...The boos were very real, and my boss (alas...
...I hope I'll be up to the challenges...
...The project engineer is the one team member who has responsibilities beyond his or her technical area...
...How low is low...
...I feel like a kid does when he knows he's having too much fun...
...That these images change with time seems obvious, but still it is something I'm struggling with...
...People looked to me as a talented player and leader...
...Better to take the heat now than to install a machine that doesn't work or, worse yet, hurts someone...
...How I love flying...
...Is there no difference between the church and our secular lives...
...It's a fascinating view of the Apostles' Creed, one that stirred me to re-examine and develop my own view...
...We make it our own and commit to it...
...As an engineering major at a large university known for its liberal heritage, I loved to surprise people with strong interests in music, art, history, and theology...
...my needs and blessings received appear on the other...
...But I also know that laws need to be applied to the here and now, not by Einstein or St...
...Images of what I might be, people with their love for me, and the Lord call me to broaden my view and horizon...
...My strengths, hopes, and accomplishments stand on the one hand...
...I had gone from budding young star to "bum" almost overnight...
...What self-images or roles am I being influenced by today...
...My mentor saw the problem, but could offer no technical solution...
...It's the responsibility inherent in the job that causes the greatest satisfaction and excitement, but also the nagging pain in your gut and some sleepless nights...
...Each flight brings new challenges and beauties...
...These images are extremely powerful ways the Lord touches me at given times...
...There was this "rush" job that had to be installed now...
...Shortly thereafter I attended a university and found the image of student/scholar becoming more and more meaningful...
...I had always done well at my studies, but the image of student or scholar didn't motivate me yet...
...I think the people who are the church already recognize this...
...Am I disdainful of laws, decrees, and authority...
...If you are successful, you are assigned larger and more complex jobs...
...I was too shocked to make a noise...
...But without relationships, the fallacy of independence is painfully clear...
...the wind sweeps over him and he is gone...
...Playing ball was the real thing...
...I remember seeing him in the hospital a short time later and being shocked by the sight...
...Yet he never dwelled on it...
...25 September 1987: 523 rarely is...
...I took a beating at the polls — the next performance review...
...There are too many variables, interactions, and surprises...
...When I would share my frustrations over the shortcomings of others, he would smile and say: "Unless you've walked a mile in my moccasins, don't get on my back...
...524: Commonweal arly in my student pilot days I took a flight with an experienced pilot and friend...
...Bernard Lonergan wrote, "Religion in an age of crises has to think less of issuing commands and decrees and more of fostering the self-sacrificing love...
...My experience as an engineer and a pilot is telling...
...The Psalms speak to me, also in my flying experiences...
...But he did help enormously by encouraging me to search — for data to support my hypothesis, for others with experience with similar systems, for technical journal articles...
...What ethical parameters and spiritual viewpoints do they bring to work and take home...
...There's always something there to surprise you, to jolt you out of your complacency, to show that your hopes and dreams and your very life itself depend on so much more than one can imagine...
...A little while later, I ran into trouble on a project...
...I never saw him again...
...It was a poem of a hunter and,a deer, of nature and beauty and life...
...My horizon goes on just so far...
...j[2) obtain supporting data...
...The people do it so much more elegantly by their lives...
...It takes time, money, expertise, and commitment to reduce risk successfully...
...Do I not believe all the commandments and strictures in the Scriptures, and pronounced more or less accurately by the "official" church...
...Life often seems to treat us like that...
...The ability to buck the flow, when supported with adequate data and theory and alternatives, is critical...
...This personal element is often overlooked in engineering...
...So we pressed on, reassured and confident...
...How does the theme of the presence of the Lord through others appear in my work...
...Such a lack of clear distinction between what might be called the sacred and the profane may seem puzzling and in need of clarification...
...And yet it's so much more than I can see just now...
...If you're not, you go looking elsewhere for employment, at the very least...
...To flaunt laws carelessly is to court disaster...
...Now learning was actually fun...
...Poetry...
...The funeral was surprising...
...The Psalms tend to describe feelings, moods, and situations with which I can identify...
...We found out later that we had tangled with a severe thunderstorm, with cloud tops over 45,000 feet high...
...But I did learn to (1) analyze and communicate clearly the risks associated with a given design...
...My specific job carries the title "Project Engineer," the team leader of a group of technicians and engineers...
...He had the twinkle in his eye that showed his zest for life...
...was teaching me that my views and thoughts and feelings are often so very narrow...
...Engineering faculty were puzzled when I took more courses than recommended, especially when many of them were in liberal studies...
...Even in death he (He...
...Psalm 103...
Vol. 114 • September 1987 • No. 16
