Good Thought
October 2025

The Soul of Work: Navigating Purpose in an Age of Spaghetti Pathways

Michelle Weise

Chief Impact Officer of The Kern Family Foundation

In this essay, Michelle Weise, Chief Impact Officer of The Kern Family Foundation and co-host of “A Life Worth Working,” muses on a new “understanding of calling: one that embraces the messiness, imperfection, and circuitous routes through which people forge meaningful lives.” These are the spaghetti pathways, and they appear to define our working lives today. Read more about finding purpose in these circuitous and slippery journeys.