The Way or The Great Game?

At one level, Kim, by Rudyard Kipling, is a rollicking adventure story of an Irish orphan growing up on the streets of India during the British Raj.

At another level, it is a deep refection on choosing the purpose of your life. It is this second level that makes this book worth reading (and rereading).

One of those Big Questions which I have spent innumerable pleasurable hours talking about with students is: “What should I do with my life?”  College is the first time most students have ever really been faced with that question.  Through high school, the next step was always obvious for the college-bound student.  Get good grades so you can get into college.  But, suddenly, the next step isn’t so obvious.

My students often start the conversation imagining that what is puzzling them is which career they should choose.  It turns out that everyone has advice for them on the “right” career path. 

It is actually quite surprising how many people give advice to others on which career is the right one.  For example, these days just about every student has been told by someone, usually multiple someones, that a major in Computer Science is the right choice.  Now, knowing many of these students, I can safely say that such advice is beyond awful for most of them.  A successful career programming computers requires a very particular (dare I say peculiar?) type of person.  Most people would hate such a job.

But, the fact that everyone is perfectly willing to tell a 20 year old what would be a good career path is exactly why the student is so confused.  Who is right?  Which is the right career?

That is how the conversation starts.  That conversation usually lasts under five minutes before I ask some variant of, “What do you want out of life?  What is your goal?”  And then begins the fascinating conversation.

This is exactly the central question in Kim.  Our Hero, nicknamed “Little Friend of All the World,” is a social chameleon; he can blend in anywhere.  His parents were Irish, but Kim has been so tanned by spending his days outdoors, he can easily pass as Indian. He is a very clever street urchin.

There are two threads to the plot.  First, Kim meets a Tibetan monk, who is looking for the place where Buddha’s arrow landed to create the River in which one bathes to wash away all sin.  The quest to find this river is The Way.  It is the way to enlightenment, to spiritual fulfillment, to peace and happiness.  Kim becomes a disciple of this charming and holy man and joins him on his journey in following The Way.

Meanwhile, Mahbub Ali, an Afghan horse-trader who works with the British secret service in spying on the enemies of the land, recruits Kim into The Great Game of espionage.  Kim is a natural spy, blending in well with whomever he meets.  Kim could become a great spy, indeed, without a doubt, the greatest spy of all.  The Great Game is exciting and daring and requires all of Kim’s intelligence and charm and wiles.

And right there is the choice facing my students.  Is the goal of life The Way of spiritual fulfillment or The Great Game of an exciting and lucrative career?  Kim is exactly like my students:

“Sahibs get little pleasure of travel,” he reflected. “Hai mai! I go from one place to another as it might be a kick-ball. It is my Kismet. No man can escape his Kismet. But I am to pray to Bibi Miriam, and I am a Sahib”—he looked at his boots ruefully. “No; I am Kim. This is the great world, and I am only Kim. Who is Kim?” He considered his own identity, a thing he had never done before, till his head swam. He was one insignificant person in all this roaring whirl of India, going southward to he knew not what fate.

Who is Kim?  The disciple of a Tibetan monk who will find joy at the discovery of the sacred river?  The student of The Great Game who will blaze a career of such success that people will write books about him?

And, like all Great Books, Kim is really asking: Who are You?

It is no wonder that my students are so tortured with this question of what they want to do with their lives.  It is a universal question.

Colleges don’t help students with this question, however.  They are also deeply conflicted.  The whole idea of an American liberal arts college is that The Way is the object of study.  The liberal arts are distinguished from the practical arts, and the colleges and universities were created to help students delve into the mysteries of life and thereby discover their complete selves. 

But, in a Faustian bargain, American liberal arts colleges have raised the price tag to $70,000 a year by promising training in The Great Game. They will help the student get that lucrative job.

So, we have a historical curriculum structure grounded in teaching The Way, yet the rhetoric of both the colleges and the instructors is the promise of teaching how to play The Great Game.  No wonder college students are confused.  If you study literature and history and philosophy and economics and science purely for the career benefits such study will bring, it does not take long to realize that you aren’t getting a lot of career benefits from most of your classes.

Break the pattern.  Pick up Kim and read it because it is a fun book wrestling with a deep question and let it take you wherever it will.