The Common Endeavor

I no longer remember in what book the narrator's father used the phrase "the common endeavor." I remember wondering what he meant by that. He used it to explain why he chose an action – something about being part of or contributing to the common endeavor.

What threw me, I think, is that I seldom see everyone working on the same project. Here we have people teaching classes, and there we have people stocking groceries, and here we have people refining oil, and there we have massage therapists, and here we have science fiction authors, and there we have baseball coaches. What single project could we all be working on?

Still, the phrase stuck with me.

It has something of the flavor of the phrase "a more perfect union" in the US constitution, or "member of a civilization" in the discussions of David Brin. There's an idea that we are all part of something, or, even more, we are all working to create something.

So the words "the common endeavor" kept working on me, and eventually, I realized that civilization is the common endeavor. All our own projects affect this larger entity that we are a part of. In fact, the common endeavor may be more than that – it could be our efforts to create a better civilization.

There's something old-fashioned about "the common endeavor." It comes to me with the rustle of tweed jackets and the smell of pipe tobacco. It resonates with a time, perhaps mythical, when people had a broad agreement on what a better civilization would be – when we joined together to build highways and go to the Moon. Maybe it's those broad vowels and open syllables. I often take abstract words like these and recommend making them more specific, making sure the concepts are tied to their objects. Common to who? Endeavor to what? How could he say "the common endeavor" as if we all knew who all was working on it and what they were working for?

It sounds like a phrase from a less partisan, more idealistic time. It sounds like the speaker could take for granted that all of us were working together, and we all aimed at the same goal.

What does it take to believe all people work to the same end? Trust? Blindness? Faith?

Humans have done amazing things when we have a common goal. I think it might be time to emphasize again the work that makes the world better for all of us.