Serving Others Will Save Your Life #It'sNotAboutChu
“ Love the earth and sun and the animals, despise riches, give alms to every one that asks, stand up for the stupid and crazy, devote your income and labor to others...”
I recently had an interview, and on this call, I admitted that although I may have a knack for marketing, and a natural proclivity to public relations, my true passion lays in altruistic giving. (If I had it my way, I would simply be a philanthropic aristocrat!) As an event planner, it’s no secret that our minds are typically focused on the bottom line. We need to make back what we put in- there’s no way around it. However, I always state very clearly, that when it comes to giving unto others, there are some costs that you will just have to bite. Whether it be a housewarming, a birthday party, a dinner party, or what have you… those are all opportunities to give to those around you. And, although, it isn’t the easiest task in the world, I genuinely enjoy my favorite challenge:
encouraging millennials to serve!
Wow, they just don’t want to do it. Obviously, there are a litany of variables that play a part into financial donations, however, we’re talking about an act as selfless, as sacrificing one’s time.
The issue, I believe (since this is my journal), is that millennials (ages 23-38 as of 2019) have a very difficult time thinking outside of themselves. They cannot think outside of their current happenings, they cannot think outside of their social calendar, they cannot think outside of their immediate friends and family, and they cannot think outside of social approval and external satisfaction. As Emma Thompson so eloquently said in Mindy Khaling’s Late Night, “You know what’s so fascinating about your generation is your obsession with catharsis. It’s so narcissistic. In fact, we might as well just go ahead and call it catharcissism.”
Her character was absolutely right. It’s as though millennials’ emotional aptitude is only triggered when the sole focus is on their needs, wants, mishaps, and the circle that revolves around them. It’s not easy to get a millennial to understand that devoting two hours of their time to packing gift bags full of bras and sanitary products for women is shelters could change the trajectory of hundreds of women. Unimaginably, millennials have to be convinced that decorating children’s cards for kids who will spend their Valentine’s Day in the hospital will go much further than they will ever know. Millennials often have a tough time grasping that the $5 spent here, and there $10 spent there could be used to buy a meal for a person living on the street.
To me, there are perspectives that shouldn’t be explained. However, I work diligently to do so. Shifting the paradigm of millennials to think outside of themselves, towards the less privileged is only a drop in the bucket. The importance of serving one’s community cannot be emphasized enough. There are endless possibilities as to how one can do that regularly. And, being regular with the practice of giving will make it an unbreakable habit.
I was fortunate to attend Catholic schools throughout my matriculation prior to college, thus “service hours” were ingrained in me. Every service site was not the best, and sometimes it was very challenging and personal growth was demanded. I am happy to say, that years later: I continue to live my life interdependently, as a steward of Christ. I live to do the Lord’s work, and I truly believe that in doing so, I have been able and been rewarded with a vibrant and fulfilling life.
In 1855, Walt Whitman penned an exalting guide of how to consider living life in a volume of 12 poems. In part, he professes:
“This is what you shall do: Love the earth and sun and the animals, despise riches, give alms to every one that asks, stand up for the stupid and crazy, devote your income and labor to others, hate tyrants, argue not concerning God, have patience and indulgence toward the people, take off your hat to nothing known or unknown or to any man or number of men, go freely with powerful uneducated persons and with the young and with the mothers of families, read these leaves in the open air every season of every year of your life, re-examine all you have been told at school or church or in any book, dismiss whatever insults your own soul, and your very flesh shall be a great poem and have the richest fluency not only in its words but in the silent lines of its lips and face and between the lashes of your eyes and in every motion and joint of your body.”
Devote your income and labor to others.
That’s my guide to life. Money comes, and money goes, but time: we can never replenish. As the late Maya Angelou once told, “people will forget what you did, people will forget what you said, but people will never forget how you mad them feel.” There is so much value in that. You are so valued that your time and effort is able to impact someone else so much. But, you need to let it. You need to think outside yourself to allow it to happen.
Serving others can deliver me from my worst mood, and reawaken my place of peace on my best days. Now that I have my own business, I am able to create opportunities for people to serve without even thinking about it. I love to curate innovative ways for people to have fun while giving, as a step in the right direction. There is so much joy in knowing that the small time you may have once a week can actively enhance the lives of others.
Consider this the next time you’re in a baught of catharcissism: What can I do, TODAY, to serve others?
