Thanksgiving rambling

The Thanksgiving meal at work on Thursday was so nice. Early in the morning I promised myself not to get too stressed about it (because volunteers were pouring in and it was hard to place them all) and because I knew it would all work out and go smoothly. I opened the side door at 10:30 and there was a huge crowd of clients waiting, and I told them that they could go sit down in the dining room and relax because there were enough volunteers that all of the clients had personal waiters for brunch and the main meal at noon.
There was fruit salad and pastries and bagels for brunch, and then a big Thanksgiving meal and goody bags at the end with toiletries and socks and candy and snacks. They were so happy because none of them go to restaurants or are ever in situations where they are waited on, and so it was such a nice treat for them. It was so nice to see and it felt like a holiday movie where everyone is happy.

BUT, I have to wonder why they only come once a year when I could tell they all had a great time and got the typical rewarding feeling that comes with volunteering. Some of them might see it as the kind of thing you do every once in a great while to feel like you're putting in the minimum amount of "giving back" (that's a funny phrase I think). There are two volunteers that have been coming once a week to serve lunch during their lunch hours because they work close by downtown, and I wish more people had that attitude. One hour per week is such a small amount of time, but like I said it seems like a lot of people think volunteering is either "not for them" period, or a once a year kind of thing. Or, they're afraid that volunteering on a regular basis will depress them.

There are plenty of depressing moments at work. But I'd rather go through them and deal with them then deny that poverty is a huge huge huge thing. The huger and more depressing the problem, the easier it is to ignore because it's too big of a risk to face it and live and work amongst it.

A big part of my time in Hartford is learning what's important to me and trying to understand and accept that there are people who are important to me that don't think those same things are important. I love having people in my life who do all different kinds of things. But there are people who do think the same things are important, and that social justice isn't a given, and they inspire me. I'm committed to what I'm doing now because there are so many problems in my backyard. It's easy to pretend poverty is only a big thing in far off countries and not in wealthy America. There are so many injustices and cases of poverty in the richest state in the country, let alone the poorer states.

I know that there's no way I could ever walk away from this kind of work- and I feel lucky that I discovered that now. I can understand why some people think service isn't for them, but I've learned that it's absolutely for me, not once a week or month or year but full-time. I feel obligated to do it, but I really enjoy it too. I like the Mohammad Ali quote that "Service to others in the payment you make for your space here on earth."