I was never really supposed to be able to do what I do for a living. Where I grew up, the notion that one could find gainful employment by having ideas and working to develop them in the academic space was close to inconceivable. On the island of Malta, where I am from, during the time I lived there, there were really just three options for the intellectually ambitious: doctor, lawyer, or priest. I initially chose doctor, but, over the decades, this role evolved into a privileged position of being able to work in academic public health, where I get to help inform a conversation about how to build a healthier world. Had my teenaged self been able to see into the future and glimpse what I am doing now, he would have been quite surprised.
The longer I do this work, the more I am struck by how extraordinary it is that anyone gets to do it, let alone me. One is reminded of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, with the basics of food and shelter at the bottom, and engagement with meaning and ideas located somewhere near the top. For much of human history, it has been all most people could do to satisfy foundational needs, to access the material resources necessary to keep body and soul together. That we now have a society which supports the pursuit of ideas as a viable career path is a rare and fairly recent achievement in the grand scheme of history.
Read the full piece on The Healthiest Goldfish.