Retirement: Am I Ready to Volunteer?

I'm not one of those people that generally gets all choked up over presidential inaugurations.  But I'll admit, I did watching this one.  It wasn't because of the ceremony, the swearing in, or the inaugural address; although, I enjoyed all of those things.

It was because of the two million people gathered on the Mall to watch in the cold.  It was because of the looks on the faces in that crowd, captured on camera.  It was because of the emotion in the voices of those interviewed, as they gathered to watch.

On Monday, our then-almost president called on us to get involved in our communities.  When I retired, I was advised to wait one year before making any ongoing commitments such as volunteer work.  I'm coming up on the end of that year and am eager now to figure out what it is that inspires me.  What cause do I feel strongly enough about to give my time to on a regular basis?

Am I also inspired by the urgings of our new president?  Well yes, I am.

A couple of days ago, I was reading some comments on another blog, which ridiculed Obama's call to service.  That one really struck me as odd.  There are plenty of people that do not agree with Obama's policy proposals, I can understand that kind of criticism.

But who, on the planet, can really glean something negative out of people coming together to try and help our communities?  For those that say, "I already volunteer my time, I don't need the president telling me to do it," good for you, but if even one more person is inspired to chip in, isn't that a GOOD thing?

Luckily the next commentary I read on the subject was at Seth Goodin's blog:

"Monday, January 19 is Martin Luther King Day. And wonderfully, instead of adding yet another shopping day to the calendar, it's being transformed to a day of service.

If every person in the US spent an hour doing something selfless, useful and leveraged, what would happen? What if you and your circle committed to doing it an hour a day for a year? 300 million hours is a lot of hours for just one day, a year of that would change everything."

No one person, not even Barack Obama, can change the world alone.  But I hope, that as I do figure out how I want to contribute to my little part of the world, I am just one of many people across America that have decided that each of our little actions will add up to something huge.

I know I am not alone, because I saw something huge in the faces of those two million people that braved the frigid temperature and the onerous lines, just so that they could share an historic experience as part of a larger community.

 

Comments

[Sylvia B]

What a delight it was to see the then almost-new-President out volunteereing; an amazing image for sure. I've just finished Level 1 training so that I can volunteer on a Red Cross Disaster Response Team. Mostly that will mean helping people locally who are devastated by a disaster (home fires for example) and just need a hand to get through the first 72 hours. The key, for me, is to find volunteer opportunities that both use my skills and value my time. As retired folks we are blessed with having the time to do this critical work. As I've been writing out in my blog, I'm pretty sure that if we're to "heal" our communities it will be because we stood shoulder-to-shoulder and began caring about and helping each other.

[Philip Brewer]

There are people who object to volunteerism--Ayn Rand, for example: "It rejects individualism, adopting instead the idea that one's life belongs to others, the moral creed that underlies every dictatorship."

I don't go that far. But I do object to "mandatory volunteerism" (a truly Orwellian concept) of the sort that some schools impose on students--do so many hours of volunteer work or else you can't graduate. You can't get much less voluntary without putting a gun to someone's head.

Since I've already mentioned Ayn Rand, I should mention what may be the best thing the Ayn Rand Institute has ever done: They created an Anti-Servitude Internship Program in which "students have the opportunity to fulfill their school's volunteer requirements by working to abolish volunteerism." Here's a link:

http://www.aynrand.org/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=6139

[Ram]

@Philip Brewer: There are many levels and degrees to volunteering. Mandatory volunteering does go too far, but I think of it as people getting exposure. Sometimes you don't know if you will like something until you try it. Another person who wrote well about not jumping in too quick into volunteering was 'M Scott Peck' of the 'The Road Less Traveled' fame.

Syd, it has only been 6 months for me. So I will be watching this space, so please do tell us what worked and what didn't as you tried out various volunteering options.

Good luck,
Ram

[Judy]

I too abhor forced volunteerism. At my job, a hospital, there was a stipulation that in order to get the "best" raise you had to volunteer a certain number of hours and of course it could only be to those groups the hospital deemed appropriate. I abstained-for an extra paltry amt it wasn't worth it to me.
However, I see nothing forced about this call to action and if even half the people who heard that call do something, think of the changes that could happen.

[Retired Syd]

Lots of interesting thoughts. I have never been exposed to "mandatory volunteerism," so the concept isn't quite sinking in for me yet (we didn't have such a requirement at our school). One question I have about this topic is whether the mandatory "volunteer" hours (in school and in work), were during school/work hours or were expected of you outside of those hours. If your employer is actually paying you to volunteer, I wouldn't really call that volunteering, rather doing a job that your employer has dispatched you to do (as was the case when I worked for an accounting firm that dispatched me to do projects for non-profit charities.)

But on a gut level, I can't say I totally object to requiring students to contribute to their communities when they are receiving a free-publicly funded education from their communities. Seems like a little civic Karma to me. Also, the learning experiences gained (or even the exposure as Ram points out) can't be disregarded either. You study many things in school you might never want to pursue in the future, but that's the place where you can try such things (and on the community's dime, I might add.)

But yes, I have to agree with Judy, that Obama's call for participation still doesn't strike me as objectionable. That's the difference between inspiring vs. requiring.

[Leslie]

Finding the right way to volunteer with a group of people who are fun to work with can be a rewarding experience. Volunteering is better when it relates to one's own interests and not those of an employer. Karma is definitely something to consider as is learning to work with different personalities and age groups which can help in any professional occupation.