911 Day of Service
Sep. 13th, 2009 02:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pjthompsonI didn't find out about the 911 Day of Service until the drive home from work on September 11. I wished I'd known sooner, but as I sat there Friday night doing my yearly night of watching about 911 on TV, I decided that I had to do something. I don't know what yet, but it's a more positive thing to do with all that grief and anger.
Service. It's a beautiful word that has recently been treated with disdain in certain quarters. All service means is thinking of someone besides yourself, doing something outside the narrow corners of your interest, the box you have placed your life in. It doesn't have to be a huge thing. Small acts of kindness add up, random bits of niceness help change the face of the vast mosaic of life. Anything that one does without personal gain being the motive is an act of service.
I hope I'm a good enough person to serve something larger than Me.
If you interpret "the week of 911" as beginning with September 11, I've still got until Friday to "perform a good deed, volunteer or engage in another charitable activity."
Because I believe the best good deeds are done anonymously, I may not report on anything here. Service of another kind, volunteering and the like, are another issue. I don't know if I'll get any "service" done this year, but I see no reason not to plan something next year.
Service. It's a beautiful word that has recently been treated with disdain in certain quarters. All service means is thinking of someone besides yourself, doing something outside the narrow corners of your interest, the box you have placed your life in. It doesn't have to be a huge thing. Small acts of kindness add up, random bits of niceness help change the face of the vast mosaic of life. Anything that one does without personal gain being the motive is an act of service.
I hope I'm a good enough person to serve something larger than Me.
If you interpret "the week of 911" as beginning with September 11, I've still got until Friday to "perform a good deed, volunteer or engage in another charitable activity."
Because I believe the best good deeds are done anonymously, I may not report on anything here. Service of another kind, volunteering and the like, are another issue. I don't know if I'll get any "service" done this year, but I see no reason not to plan something next year.
no subject
Date: 2009-09-14 12:24 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-09-14 05:20 pm (UTC)You are who you are, I am who I am. We don't have to become someone else, or some false someone, in order to make positive change in the world. In fact, I think one must be true to oneself in order to do it. But in addition to that, and being comfortable in who we truly are, we can sometimes step outside that role and be part of the larger world.