Volunteer!
Each year I make it an effort to involve myself with an organization known as the Appalachia Service Project. It is a home repair ministry that serves the people of Appalachia.
I used to have a teacher in American Studies who coveted the idea of volunteering - the act of giving of one's self without any expectation for compensation, monetarily or otherwise. He used to tell us that he loved Tennessee simply because it is the Volunteer state. You could have said he was an idealist, but from what i have witnesses in my own volunteer opportunities, he was equally a realist.
The truth is that volunteering is difficult. It demands a sacrifice. For some this is greater than others. It is certainly different for everyone. But nonetheless, you must give up something (time, money, opportunity) to volunteer.
It works against the laws of economics in that it can be a selfless act... one where the individual is not necessarily thinking of themselves or their interests first. Perhaps that is why I like volunteering so much. It is rebellious in that way. We rebel against the conventions of our economy, of our societal norms. We put a cause or an idea in front of our own desires, and we work at it. That's pretty sweet.
On this most recent trip to ASP, I was surrounded by eighty other volunteers. We were broken up into work crews of six or seven people, and we worked to repair the homes of families who lived in Breathitt and Perry Counties in Kentucky.
To explain the entire week of volunteering, from the travel to and from the centers, to the relationship with the families, to the relationships with the center staff, the other volunteers from other areas of the country, the time to develop yourself, the break from the everyday... it is all too much to process at once. But suffice it to say that when we returned, not one person was exactly the same as when they first left. Every person had learned a little more about the power of individual sacrifice, of working together, of the lives of many in Appalachia, of Appalachian culture, of the power that they can have on change in this world.
If you have never done it. Volunteer.
If you have ever thought about it. Volunteer.
If it's for a day or a year. Volunteer.
If it's for a religious cause, a medical cause, a friend's cause, a patriotic cause, a symbolic cause... Volunteer.
Push aside your reservations. Volunteer.
I used to have a teacher in American Studies who coveted the idea of volunteering - the act of giving of one's self without any expectation for compensation, monetarily or otherwise. He used to tell us that he loved Tennessee simply because it is the Volunteer state. You could have said he was an idealist, but from what i have witnesses in my own volunteer opportunities, he was equally a realist.
The truth is that volunteering is difficult. It demands a sacrifice. For some this is greater than others. It is certainly different for everyone. But nonetheless, you must give up something (time, money, opportunity) to volunteer.
It works against the laws of economics in that it can be a selfless act... one where the individual is not necessarily thinking of themselves or their interests first. Perhaps that is why I like volunteering so much. It is rebellious in that way. We rebel against the conventions of our economy, of our societal norms. We put a cause or an idea in front of our own desires, and we work at it. That's pretty sweet.
On this most recent trip to ASP, I was surrounded by eighty other volunteers. We were broken up into work crews of six or seven people, and we worked to repair the homes of families who lived in Breathitt and Perry Counties in Kentucky.
To explain the entire week of volunteering, from the travel to and from the centers, to the relationship with the families, to the relationships with the center staff, the other volunteers from other areas of the country, the time to develop yourself, the break from the everyday... it is all too much to process at once. But suffice it to say that when we returned, not one person was exactly the same as when they first left. Every person had learned a little more about the power of individual sacrifice, of working together, of the lives of many in Appalachia, of Appalachian culture, of the power that they can have on change in this world.
If you have never done it. Volunteer.
If you have ever thought about it. Volunteer.
If it's for a day or a year. Volunteer.
If it's for a religious cause, a medical cause, a friend's cause, a patriotic cause, a symbolic cause... Volunteer.
Push aside your reservations. Volunteer.
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