Editorial September 4, 1976 Issue

Finding Our Own Niche

Peter J. Henniker-Heaton

There's a kind of remark we hear from time to time, perhaps we use it ourselves. The one looking for work says, "There aren't many jobs to choose from." The one seeking a house or apartment says, "There aren't many houses or apartments available in this section." Or the one hoping for a life partner laments, "There aren't many unattached men (or girls) around here." But in every instance it's not many that are needed—just one, one for each of us.

A young couple asked me the time of service at The Mother Church in Boston. As we chatted, I inquired if they were Christian Scientists. "No," the husband replied. "We've just come to work in Boston, and we're shopping around for a church home." Some of us apparently regard the world as a giant supermarket and life as a continuous shopping expedition. We line up colleges, jobs, apartments, possible life partners, even churches, and make our choice out of the line.

This is often a helpful approach to life. There's nothing wrong with shopping around per se. But there's another approach likely to make us more independent of the fluctuations of society and the economy and of the multiple but limited choices offered on the shelves of the world supermarket.

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