In Which I Take Some Lessons on Volunteering
Two lessons (perhaps contradictory?) on volunteering from the past week:
Lesson the first, courtesy of Julian Bond, founder of SNCC, eminence grise of the civil rights movement, long-time Georgia legislator, and now director of the NAACP, who spoke at our school last week. Yes, I sat in a gym with maybe 600 other people and heard Julian Bond talk for an hour. And then I got to shake his hand. It's rare you get that close to living history - definitely one of the coolest moments of my life. I was especially impressed by his strong stance that civil rights are universal rights - advocates of racial or gender equality should stand equally strongly for equality for the LGBT community. Bravo, Mr. Bond. It's clear after listening to the man for five minutes why he's such a respected leader - he's inspiring, accessible, funny, eloquent, everything you'd want in a speaker. I'm probably going to become a member of the NAACP after his exhortation. His message was clear and simple, challenging yet practical: Do something. Figure out what you can do, where you want to see change enacted, and get involved. Join an organization that works in the area where you want to see change. Give what you can, in terms of time, money, action, support. But do something.
Sometimes you need to have it put into stark and simple terms like that to cut through all the hemming and hawing, the excuses and the qualifying.
Lesson the second, courtesy of my rugby club. We play a challenging schedule that often demands that we field three sides on a given weekend -that means we need to put over fifty players in uniform. On those occasions (two to four times each year) the call goes out to semi-retired players like me to dust off the boots and lend a hand. So last week I let our selectors know that I'd be available for the Divsion I B-side game (the lowest tier of competition in which we field a team on such occasions). When the rosters for each match were released, lo and behold, I was on the reserves bench for the Divison I A-side match. Hmmm. Well, I played about 10-15 minutes at the end, during which I did not shame myself despite the long layoff from competitive rugby, and the total lack of any practice. Then I played the B-side match (an abbreviated contest, mercifully) during the course of which I got a very dashing-looking cleat divot carved into my forehead just above my right eyebrow.
Sometimes you may volunteer, and you may be asked to do more than you think you can. Give it a try - you may surprise yourself, to your delight and satisfaction.
Here endeth the lessons.
Lesson the first, courtesy of Julian Bond, founder of SNCC, eminence grise of the civil rights movement, long-time Georgia legislator, and now director of the NAACP, who spoke at our school last week. Yes, I sat in a gym with maybe 600 other people and heard Julian Bond talk for an hour. And then I got to shake his hand. It's rare you get that close to living history - definitely one of the coolest moments of my life. I was especially impressed by his strong stance that civil rights are universal rights - advocates of racial or gender equality should stand equally strongly for equality for the LGBT community. Bravo, Mr. Bond. It's clear after listening to the man for five minutes why he's such a respected leader - he's inspiring, accessible, funny, eloquent, everything you'd want in a speaker. I'm probably going to become a member of the NAACP after his exhortation. His message was clear and simple, challenging yet practical: Do something. Figure out what you can do, where you want to see change enacted, and get involved. Join an organization that works in the area where you want to see change. Give what you can, in terms of time, money, action, support. But do something.
Sometimes you need to have it put into stark and simple terms like that to cut through all the hemming and hawing, the excuses and the qualifying.
Lesson the second, courtesy of my rugby club. We play a challenging schedule that often demands that we field three sides on a given weekend -that means we need to put over fifty players in uniform. On those occasions (two to four times each year) the call goes out to semi-retired players like me to dust off the boots and lend a hand. So last week I let our selectors know that I'd be available for the Divsion I B-side game (the lowest tier of competition in which we field a team on such occasions). When the rosters for each match were released, lo and behold, I was on the reserves bench for the Divison I A-side match. Hmmm. Well, I played about 10-15 minutes at the end, during which I did not shame myself despite the long layoff from competitive rugby, and the total lack of any practice. Then I played the B-side match (an abbreviated contest, mercifully) during the course of which I got a very dashing-looking cleat divot carved into my forehead just above my right eyebrow.
Sometimes you may volunteer, and you may be asked to do more than you think you can. Give it a try - you may surprise yourself, to your delight and satisfaction.
Here endeth the lessons.