If you open up any dictionary on volunteering, it will give you more or less the following definition: “an altruistic activity where an individual or group provides services for no financial or social gain” . It’s not something you’ve never heard of before, or something you read for the first time. We all know what volunteering means, especially nowadays when such actions are more and more needed due to natural disasters, fires, or military conflicts, times that force us to look right through reality and reflect on the human species;and right at this momentinternational, political and socio-economic conditions are making things harder to improve the existing problems.
This is when we come to reflect: “Is it obligatory to help or not?”. Opinions diverge, for some it is a constant obligation to the fellow human, for others a simple right to exercise if and whenever they wish. In which category do you belong? Obviously you don’t have to belong to one group or another. You can be a freelance volunteer, you can be a volunteer occasionally or only once. In addition, when we talk about volunteering, we are referring to a wide range of services, from volunteer firefighters and rescuers, who give their souls to saving lives, to volunteer cooks and people helping out in the neighborhood, from volunteer doctors to blood donors and volunteers on a TEDx event.
But why volunteer? Unfortunately, this is so difficult to explain in words and the words altruism, charity, tender and offerings seemcold and meaningless when you hear or read them. Theyecho more beautifully in the soul when experiencing them, when you become one with them and their meaning. So, think how useful it is for some to provide any kind of service or support freely, how useful it is to society, and, also importantly, what youmay earn.
Giving does not mean losing; on the contrary. Many consider it is a waste of time without any benefit. To actual volunteers,it’s about gratitude, smiles, moral and emotional fulfillment, feelings of immeasurable value and self-interest that cannot be valued with money. How satisfiedyou feel when you are boosting andstimulating that part of your soul which is completely independent of material wealth, but inextricably linked to that part of society that is needed more than anything else in our lives,which is people themselves!
Apart from the emotional satisfaction, of course, it is also important to meet new people with whom you share a common sense of desire, the same desire to communicate and interact, the same need to offer generously. No matter how small or big what you give is, it is the intention, the desire to help, and that’s when the genuine charity and kindness of the soul appears.
Of course, you don’t have to be a volunteer rescuer or an activist. Starting from the smallest material or spiritual offering to a fellow man is important. And I’m talking to you as a person who has little to do with volunteering, but who is inspiredby the greatness of the human soul that needs to receive as well as give. In a world of material things, speed, stress and oppression,in a world that is waiting for an unfortunately ineptrule of law to eliminate inequality, poverty, injustice, in this world where many live for money, you must live for the people! Or, better yet, live for people TOO. To their question “How much do you earn from this?” just reply “It’s invaluable!”.
Translation: Kleio Antonaki
Review: Niki Saridaki