More Service Anyone?

What is "service?" I read a sign on a monument yesterday, it said "To All Who Serve." Of course it made me think of the Minor coincidence, not more than a few hours earlier, I mailed a donation to a firefighters' association I know. I had been on the receiving end of a solicitation call on a day I had been thinking of my father, who was a firefighter for thirty years, another coincidence.

Anyway, I asked myself if I might ever fit into that category--one who serves. I volunteer a tiny bit right now but it doesn't seem to amount to enough to fit any definition I could see for one who serves. There is another organization I volunteered for, but my work schedule must interfere with their calling me so far. I think I will have to remind the director I am still around and would like to serve. But, it strikes me that unless she needs a very active board member and/or part-time manager of the organization, I won't feel involved enough to be one who serves there for very long. I suspect that organization doesn't have a plan to carry itself beyond status as a kind of neighborhood clique anyway. While I will aim for more involvement, I will have my doubts until it grows some. Sounds kind of like sour grapes as I re-read it now, but that's just how I feel.

But I want to serve and don't know just how. I live in an area where there are many who volunteer, so volunteering often turns into a crowded field. I have this urge (as I always have had) to do something no one else is doing. I may not find it soon, but I am on the lookout.

I've noticed some people in government service who think they might be public servants, but their approach strikes me as self-serving--which is sort of the opposite of "All Those Who Serve" in the monument I saw. Maybe we would have some true public servants if it didn't take so much fund-raising to enter public service, or maybe if it weren't possible to make a career for life out of it. I have a friend who told me he truly believed that term limits would leave the country in the hands of the special interests, since they would be the only ones who knew the ropes in Washington or (pick one: city hall or the statehouse or the state capital, etc.) I think we could overcome that--the senior senator could be tasked to get the junior senator acclimated, or the congresspersons from any given state could make it the business of their caucus to orient the newly-elected. Egad, I am talking about politics--I apologize, really.

Another consideration about being one who serves is that I might just want to supplement my income during this second half of life. That complicates things, I know, but I think service that is really valued is not always free and that "voluntary" service should be valued. Talk about making the search difficult, now he wants pay at a not-for-profit (or is it a non-profit?). So, Dear God, if you're listening up there, give me a few hints. I'm sorta lost here.