Service, Muhammed Ali, and you
Photographer Fran Leibowitz, in a Dorothy Parker moment, said, “Humility is no substitute for a good personality.” That may be, but I am nonetheless feeling humbled by an honor from Paul Smith’s College–I’ve been asked to give the Commencement speech. The topic: service.
My friends and family keep asking me, “have you written your speech, yet?” or “what are you going to say about service?”
So far, the answers to these two questions: “no” and “I don’t know.”
Here’s what Muhammed Ali said: “Service to others is the rent you pay for your room here on earth.”
What about you? What is service? What do you do in your life to serve something or someone(s) other than yourself?
Help! I promise to credit you in my speech if I use your experiences, ideas or thoughts on service. Leave your comments here. Thanks.
Tags: Fran Leibowitz, Muhammed Ali, speech
Mostly I serve by serving food: cooking, cleaning up, setting up and tearing down tables, etc. The biggest obstacle to service is the notion that you have nothing special to offer. You’re not the sharpest knife in the drawer, or you’re not leadership material, or you don’t know where to start. But this is false humility; most of the service needed by others can be provided by anyone. Or if you are not providing the service directly, you can serve the volunteers who provide the service.
Serving food is direct, easy and satisfying. Unlike leadership or planning or policy, when you serve food you almost never have to wonder whether you have done the right thing, or made a real difference. So don’t think too much–just cook something, and pass it around.
Count me in the “has nothing special to offer” camp!
But here is what I’ve noticed about engaging in acts of service: very often I end up being the beneficiary. Why? Well, firstly, because it really does feel good to give. Secondly (and this is the part I’ve been most impressed by) you meet really special people.
Seriously, there are very interesting folks on both sides of the activity. Some encounters take on enough significance to feel like special acts of fate.
On top of that fellow volunteers have often been places and done things, which are fun to hear about. Even those who have never stirred a step usually come to acts of service with really deep hearts & minds.
Volunteers are cool and serving others is enriching. At times, the pay-offs almost feel selfish.
Such is my limited experience, anyway. If you have not done so already, discover this for yourself!
Lucy’s observation – “Some encounters take on enough significance to feel like special acts of fate” – really resonated with me. So true!
But even if your encounter isn’t life-changing, it still has significance. I recently went to a small street fair, and a little blonde girl approached me, smiling, saying that she had seen me before. When questioned, she was certain that she’d seen me there another time…although I couldn’t imagine when that might have been. I later found out that she probably did see me before – I had helped out in her classroom at school a couple times this school year! (Wow…Good memory, Kiddo!)
Once you roll your helping stone into motion and splash into the volunteering waters, sometimes you forget that you make a ripple. I didn’t think too much of my sporadic trips to school…the teachers needed help, I made time, it happened, I went home. So what? Well, meeting this student on a sunny spring day (away from school) reminded me that there WAS a ‘so what’. I made a tiny ripple. I made a difference. Maybe one day soon she’ll make her own little ripples. I hope so.
It’s exciting to contemplate…when we all join together to make ripples, our combined forces can create waves. It’s happening every day, in the most amazing places. So grab your board…surf’s up!
This is an interesting concept. I don’t really think of service in the sense of volunteerism. Service is more a way of life. If we think about serving the earth, we can only end up doing positive things and thereby helping all things living.