As we look back on this week, with its extended Veterans Day celebration on both Monday (schools closed) and Tuesday (government closed), we can’t help thinking, too, of the many servicemen and servicewomen who did not come home – those who gave their very lives in service to our country, who never had the chance to be “veterans.” To all military personnel whom we honor on both Veterans Day and Memorial Day, we give heart-felt thanks.
True service involves effort for which one doesn’t expect to be repaid. We know that we can never repay the debt we owe those who’ve been in mortal danger in defense of our country, and it humbles us. Our soldiers’ motivations have not stemmed from a desire for personal glory, and that’s what makes their sacrifices heroic.
Service is a denial of self, in order that others might benefit. We laud that impulse regularly at election times, when private citizens step forward to run for many local government offices. Yes, there’s a nice stroke to your ego when, win or lose, thousands of people you don’t know vote for you to represent them, but beyond that puff of pride there’s generally no compensation.
This desire to be an elected representative becomes less altruistic – less pure – when it’s a paid position. When such a role becomes your job, not merely service, it can’t help clouding your motives a little, with the U.S. Congress being perhaps the most extreme example.
And what about “civil servants” (that is, government bureaucrats)? Common lore suggests that among them customer service is not the, shall we say, highest goal. Not that there aren’t great people working at the DMV, the IRS and at all levels of government, but a call to service is evidently not the motivation for many.
We might ponder, when we donate to our favorite charities, are we giving from our surplus or from our core? We willingly admit that our generosity tends to fade when it might negatively impact our own lives, yet that’s when it truly becomes service.
We enjoy the idea of “pay it forward,” a term apparently coined by author Robert A. Heinlein and popularized for a time by the 2000 movie of that name, but the practice dates at least as far back as Benjamin Franklin. Rather than expecting someone for whom you’ve done a kindness to pay it back, you suggest that it be paid forward to someone else in need.
At many of the auction events here in Sonoma Valley to raise money for worthy causes, there’ll be an announcement that someone has a made a large, anonymous gift, and that inspires us. When we have given anonymously in our own small ways, we’ve found the satisfaction of knowing there is no repayment sought, not even public acclaim, to be exhilarating. Maybe our parents were right, after all – giving is better than receiving.
So the question recurs: Would we individually have the strength of character to answer the call to service, as our fallen soldiers and surviving veterans have done? Thankfully, that choice is not one that most of us face today. But opportunities to serve others truly abound, and we do face those choices, every day. In our view, we are all called to service.
