Good morning! I am happy to say that MMM is back from its brief hiatus. And what better day to get started than a frigid January Monday starting off a very hectic and full week? After all, if one small positive thought in the morning can change your whole day, then a day like this could really use a little change. Here’s the quote:
“Everybody can be great, because everybody can serve.
You don’t have to have a college degree to serve.
You don’t have to make your subject and your verb agree to serve.
You don’t have to know about Plato and Aristotle to serve…
You only need a heart full of grace, a soul generated by love.”
— Martin Luther King, Jr.
How fitting today to reflect on a quote from the man whose legacy we honor. And how appropriate in this time where our elected officials seem determined to do things only for themselves, and seem to have forgotten that their role is to serve the people they represent, that we have a quote about service. Let’s dive in.
Now, as a self-proclaimed grammar nerd, I would like to suggest that we not be too hasty in discarding subject-verb agreement. I mean after all, you can serve and also use proper syntax.
But the soul of this quote is a soul generated by love, and a dedication to service. And in many ways, that is a concept on which this country was founded and built. The elected officials serve and represent their constituents. The military and police serve and protect the public; the New Deal provided opportunities to serve citizens; JFK told us to “ask not what your country can do for you….”
There is a history of service. And even if that gets lost or forgotten on the big stage, there are still plenty of opportunities for each of us to remember it in our daily lives. Whether it be in the work context, in the community association context, or the “life” context, we can each look for opportunities to serve, and recognize those who serve as well. So that is my goal this week: to look for ways to serve others, and to acknowledge the service engaged in by those around me.
First at work, I will rededicate myself to the first prong of the FLS motto: “Service. Success. Simple.” My law practice exists to serve the associations I represent. Also, as I reflect back on my career, I think of serving others, and I recognize that those were not only chances to help people, but chances to shine as well. Doing the difficult task, or the non-billable task, or the not-immediately-gratifying task, has always been a form of service. And when I take those on, I find myself growing, and learning, and putting my skills and abilities on display. Maybe, it turns out, a service mindset can have benefits for me too.
And how about in the community association context? Can I find some way to thank and acknowledge those board members who dedicate time, effort, and resources to their neighborhoods without any compensation or reward? Can I help those people accomplish the very admirable task that they have undertaken, that they spend great swaths of their free time working on? I like to hope that this blog itself is a form of service, providing associations and their leadership with information and resources that might benefit them.
Lastly in my daily life, can I find an opportunity to serve others? Perhaps it will be helping out a friend, or volunteering for a local school, church, or charity. Or maybe I can simply commit a “random act of kindness.” I will tell you that over the holiday break, some friends did a very kind and generous thing for me. And it inspired and motivated me to want to be that kind of person. That might be the best thing about this service mindset – it can be contagious.
Maybe each of us can do something that inspires someone else to service. Maybe instead of waiting for our leaders to do it right, or hoping for things to get better and easier on their own, or putting our immediate needs first, maybe each of us can do something for someone else. And maybe that mindset, and that service, will carry us all forward.
Hey look, I only promised it would be a positive thought. Now it’s up to each of us to put that thought into action.
Have a great week everybody.