Callings: The Purpose and Passion of Work

Dana Viviano, an oncology nurse, speaks with her daughter, Sarafina Viviano. Dana recalls her mother being diagnosed with stage-IV cancer and the doctors telling her she had no chance of survival. Dana was angry with the lack of treatment and care given to her mother. At the time, she was training to be an ICU (intensive care unit) nurse, but she switched to oncology nursing so that others would have better care than her mother.

Her mother’s death spurred her to finish her degree. Though working in the oncology ward of a children’s hospital is often painful, she feels privileged that she can help people. Her daughter says that her mother is “maybe an angel on earth” (113).

Issan Koyama talks to his spouse, Paul Boos, about his work as a hospice chaplain. When Issan left Japan, he first worked in the fashion industry and then ended up in New York during the 1980s AIDS epidemic. There, he saw the lack of care and comfort given to men and women dying of AIDS and began volunteering in an AIDS ward.

Eventually, he learned about a Zen Buddhist monk in San Francisco running an AIDS hospice and went to help.