Whew. I've been meaning to get on here for the last week. It was even on my to do list last weekend. Clearly that didn't happen! Life has been a little crazy as of late, primarily because of work. I was at all four of my schools within the last week, coordinated a professional development workshop, am conducting two professional development workshops this week, and am traveling up to Pitt-Bradford to work with student teachers for three days in between. Whew.
Which is why my encounter at the grocery store yesterday really made me stop and think. Jake and I had been invited to a neighbor's for an early Thanksgiving dinner, and I was running to pick up last minute supplies at the Giant Eagle Market District in Shadyside. Now, if you've ever been there, you know that it's madness whenever you go there, be it 7 am, 2 pm, or 10 pm. So many people! I go in and by the end I literally had 4 things in my hand: a can of butter beans, a can of baked beans, bacon (all of these for Calico beans, or 3-bean hotdish--delicious!), and some pumpkin eggnog. The last item was a splurge, but it's become something of a tradition for Jake and I to get around this time of year. I walk up to the self-checkout lanes. The express lanes are of course long and filled with people who have 12 or MORE items. Read the signs people! But right next to it was a gentleman who had about 6 items in his cart, and an older lady who didn't have that much. I took my chances and figured that they'd be done before the express lane.
Then, much to my surprise, the older lady turns around, sees what I have in my arms, and says, "You don't have that many things. Would you like to go in front of me?" I stood there astonished for a moment, mouth gaping open. I at first was going to politely decline until I remembered that I did in fact have to go home and immediately start making things for the dinner. I replied, "That is so nice of you! Yes, if you wouldn't mind." Then, to my even greater surprise, she turns to the guy behind me, who also had 4 items, and said, "You don't have many things either. Go on ahead in front of me." Who does that nowadays???
And it just got me thinking about common sense kindness. She could've been wrapped up in her own little world, not noticing anyone around her. She could've not even cared in the slightest how she might hold other people up. But she didn't. She used common sense, a little mathematical reasoning, and deduced that the few extra minutes she would spend there were worth having people not have to wait for her (and her half-full cart). I've seen people with carts brimming and overflowing with goods not bat an eye when you have a minuscule basket behind them. But I was able to walk out of Giant Eagle with a huge grin on my face when normally I leave scowling and cursing the masses of people.
So, I'm going to try to take this approach more often when I'm dealing with strangers and friends alike. When it makes common sense, show a little kindness. It's really not that hard. And you might just make someone's day.
Showing posts with label Service. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Service. Show all posts
Sunday, November 14, 2010
Saturday, July 31, 2010
Service
Today I ended my year of service with AmeriCorps. It was a whirlwind year, mainly because I quite typically had to make things very very hard on myself by getting married and having a second (and third and fourth) job. I gained so much experience in knowledge about working with young kids, working with difficult people, among others.
But most importantly, my year got me thinking about what this whole idea of "service" is. I love the idea of volunteering and serving other people. I am fully in support of anything that will help another human being, a community, or the planet. But, sadly, there also seems to be some hidden assumptions to the idea of service that make me uneasy sometimes. Service implies an already preexisting power structure, but one that can work both ways. On the one end you have the lower serving the higher--a waiter serves his customers food, a butler serves the master of the house, etc. On the other end you have the higher serving the lower--non-community volunteers taking trash out of rundown neighborhoods, volunteers bagging food at the food pantry, etc. Most of the service from this past year could be classified under the second type, albeit without most of the sinister overtone of the "lower/higher" distinction. I say "without most" because there were definitely times that, when not perhaps sinister, the intentions behind our service to a particular community with ignorant and ill-informed. Certainly, intentions are good, but what of the results of said service? What if (as I believe will happen with a few of our projects) the long-last effects are few or even non-existent?
Another assumption seems to be that all service is created equal and all service is necessarily beneficial. But that was simply not the case. At times it was painfully evident--sitting around a project with nothing to do because the coordinators hadn't planned well enough or there were too many of us for the job, thus wasting precious wo/man power (not to mention time). At other times, the disparity between the quality of service was not seen but felt. Leaving one service project you might feel bored and apathetic about it all, others you left feeling rejuvenated about the prospect of the service you have put into action.
I don't mean to sound so cynical about the whole thing. The whole endeavor of service is absolutely worthwhile, but I at least in the future will be thinking a little more about what this means and the kind of service that I value performing, for whom, and to what end. Perhaps this makes me even more of a service erudite with nothing better to do than think about how I can best change the world and further reinforces the very notion of "higher/lower" that I seek to dispel. Yet maybe it will make my future service more meaningful, both to me and the areas I serve, to have some answers to these questions. Without asking them, we seem to run the risk of alienating the motivation from the action of service, and in this day, with resources running thin, it's something that we just can't afford.
But most importantly, my year got me thinking about what this whole idea of "service" is. I love the idea of volunteering and serving other people. I am fully in support of anything that will help another human being, a community, or the planet. But, sadly, there also seems to be some hidden assumptions to the idea of service that make me uneasy sometimes. Service implies an already preexisting power structure, but one that can work both ways. On the one end you have the lower serving the higher--a waiter serves his customers food, a butler serves the master of the house, etc. On the other end you have the higher serving the lower--non-community volunteers taking trash out of rundown neighborhoods, volunteers bagging food at the food pantry, etc. Most of the service from this past year could be classified under the second type, albeit without most of the sinister overtone of the "lower/higher" distinction. I say "without most" because there were definitely times that, when not perhaps sinister, the intentions behind our service to a particular community with ignorant and ill-informed. Certainly, intentions are good, but what of the results of said service? What if (as I believe will happen with a few of our projects) the long-last effects are few or even non-existent?
Another assumption seems to be that all service is created equal and all service is necessarily beneficial. But that was simply not the case. At times it was painfully evident--sitting around a project with nothing to do because the coordinators hadn't planned well enough or there were too many of us for the job, thus wasting precious wo/man power (not to mention time). At other times, the disparity between the quality of service was not seen but felt. Leaving one service project you might feel bored and apathetic about it all, others you left feeling rejuvenated about the prospect of the service you have put into action.
I don't mean to sound so cynical about the whole thing. The whole endeavor of service is absolutely worthwhile, but I at least in the future will be thinking a little more about what this means and the kind of service that I value performing, for whom, and to what end. Perhaps this makes me even more of a service erudite with nothing better to do than think about how I can best change the world and further reinforces the very notion of "higher/lower" that I seek to dispel. Yet maybe it will make my future service more meaningful, both to me and the areas I serve, to have some answers to these questions. Without asking them, we seem to run the risk of alienating the motivation from the action of service, and in this day, with resources running thin, it's something that we just can't afford.
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