It has been well over a year since I discussed my thoughts on volunteering and why it is important to not only your well-being but those around you. If you took my advice and started or continued to volunteer then I commend you. If you still believe that it's not an important part of your life or you just don't believe your volunteering can making a difference, then this post is for you. Wikipedia defines a volunteer as someone who works for free for a community or for the benefit of natural environment primarily because they choose to do so. I thought this was a pretty fitting definition. Notice the end of that definition. "Because they choose to do so". Because they choose to do so are pretty powerful words. Us human beings have the ability to make choices. We can choose to go to work today, we can choose to spend our money on things we don't need, we can choose whether to help that person stranded on the side of the road. This choice is what makes volunteering so powerful. It's something you and you alone must decide to do, otherwise it's not truly volunteering. Remember at the end of the last Matrix movie when Neo is fighting Agent Smith? Remember when he finally gets what the Oracle had been trying to explain to him? As Agent Smith is pounding Neo into the pavement he asks the question why:

Why? why, Mr. Anderson, why? why do you do it? why get up? why keep fighting? are you perhaps fighting for something? something other than your survival? can you tell me what it is, do you even know? could it be for freedom or truth perhaps peace or love? illusions Mr. Anderson, vagaries of perception. temporary constructs of a feeble human intellect trying desperately to justify an existence that is with meaning or purpose! and all of them as artificial as the matrix itself, although, only a human can invent something as incepted as love. You must be able to see by now, you cant win its pointless to keep fighting! Why Mr. Anderson, why, why must you persist?

Then Neo responds:

Because I choose to.............

 

You see, I think Neo finally realizes that his choice makes a difference. That by choosing to "stay in the game" he can make a difference in the twisted world he's living in. He has learned his choices define who he is. I also believe this holds true in the world we live in. What we choose to do with our time and resources defines who we are. By choosing to volunteer we too are showing our world that we can and will make a difference for the better good. In my previous post on volunteering I provided a few stats I had found. More recent statistics from the Bureau of Labor Statistics show that between September 2006 and September 2007, 26.2 percent of the U.S. population volunteered at least once during the year. Unfortunately this number is down from previous years. This is clear evidence that we need volunteers more than ever. Have you ever stopped to think of everything that relies on volunteers? Everything from Fire Departments to Schools; From hospitals to Churches; The military to little league baseball coaches; homeless shelters to the Red Cross. They all rely on volunteers and without volunteers most, if not all of these would have a much smaller impact or cease to exist altogether. If you see anyone volunteering be sure you thank them. If you haven't stepped up yet to volunteer yourself then now is your time. It can be one of the most rewarding activities that you'll ever experience. When we volunteer our time to feed those who are hungry, to talk to someone who is lonely, to help rebuild a neighborhood devastated by disaster, or by simply volunteering a few hours to help our Churches and Schools, we are making a choice to serve a cause much greater than our own. A cause that does not exist without volunteers.

The Choice is yours Mr. Anderson...............

 

 

Volunteer Stats obtained from the Bureau of Labor Statistics