Community & YOU

Daily Meditation 1,018–12/18/2024

Society is a complex thing, isn’t it?

You flick a switch and expect that 99,999 times in 100,000 that the light will come on.

Your wife or son, Calvin, attempts to turn up the thermostat from 61 to 62 and they expect that the furnace receives natural gas and kicks on every time.

You turn the knob and expect hot, clean, and instant water.

Additionally, you go to your Downtown’s Italianfest and expect trashcans, music on stage, food vendors galore, and plenty of volunteers all over to help in any way.

Or, you go to church and expect there will be enough people to competently help with communion, serve some treats and make hot coffee for fellowship, ushers, lectors, and acolytes — as well as, of course, maintenance and office people.

Where am I going with this meandering set of expectations?

Your community — society as a whole — relies on no small number of good folk showing up and helping out.

Many of them are there to make money for their careers, certainly, but a lot relies on people doing things with no expectation of anything in return.

When you hold a door for someone, they storm through, and then don’t utter an audible “thank you,” you get pissy —…