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This is Our Story

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Driven By Love and Compassion,
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  • Cycle-of-Life Season
    • 1 Dormancy
      • Week 01: Human Worth
      • Week 02: Universality
      • Week 03: Justice
      • Week 04: Suffering
      • Week 05: Humility
      • Week 06: Avoiding Harm, or Evil
      • Week 07: Engaging the World
      • Week 08: Order
    • 2 Sowing
      • Week 09: Preferences (Desire)
      • Week 10: Autonomy
      • Week 11: Life as a Journey
      • Week 12: Renewal
      • Week 13: Hope and Optimism
      • Week 14: Self-esteem (Self-worth begins)
      • Week 15: Self-confidence
      • Week 16: Independence (Self-competence)
    • 3 Growth
      • Week 17: Our Future
      • Week 18: Honesty
      • Week 19: Obligation in the World
      • Week 20: Duty toward Others
      • Week 21: Awakening
      • Week 22: Obstacles and Opportunities
      • Week 23: Individuality and Community
    • 4 Ripening
      • Week 24: Honoring
      • Week 25: Excellence
      • Week 26: An Ethic of Generous Service
      • Week 27: Openness
      • Week 28: Transcendence
      • Week 29: Wisdom
      • Week 30: Caring
      • Week 31: Courage
      • Week 32: Citizenship
    • 5 Interlude
      • Week 33: Grounding and Well-Roundedness
      • Week 34: Assertiveness
      • Week 35: Restoration
    • 6 Fulfillment
      • Week 36: Creativity
      • Week 37: Truth
      • Week 38: Love
      • Week 39: Faith
      • Week 40: Rebirth
    • 7 Assessing
      • Week 41: Home and the Past
      • Week 42: Vitality
      • Week 43: Self-actualization and Integrity
      • Week 44: Connectedness
      • Week 45: Empowerment
      • Week 46: Equality
    • 8 Harvest and Celebration
      • Week 47: Flourishing
      • Week 48: Focus and Perspective
      • Week 49: Change
      • Week 50: Finding Our Niche
      • Week 51: Accepting / Surrendering
      • Week 52: Living Religiously
      • Week 53: Celebration and Remembrance
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You are here: Home / Cycle-of-Life Season / 4 Ripening / Serving

Serving

Mother Teresa

You may be tempted to think of service along the lines of a maid or butler, or a food server in a restaurant. If so, you may be put off by the economic inequality that often accompanies and gives rise to such work. But for some people, service to others is a constant and joyful act and not subservient at all. The Kennedy family comes to mind in its ethic of political service to country. The family matriarch, Rose Kennedy, often expressed that view. There are many other examples, some of which are highlighted in the narratives on this page.

Real

True Narratives

Narratives on military and other public service:

  • James Wright, Those Who Have Borne the Battle: A History of America’s Wars and Those Who Fought Them (PublicAffairs, 2012), exploring “how the United States has raised forces with which it wages war; and how, in the aftermath of battle, it cares for and remembers those who fought.”
  • Marcus Luttrell, Service: A Navy SEAL at War (Little, Brown & Company, 2012).
  • Harold C. Dethloff and Gerald E. Shenk, Citizen and Soldier: A Sourcebook on Military Service and National Defense from Colonial America to the Present (Routledge, 2011).
  • John O. Brennan, Undaunted: My Fight Against America's Enemies, at Home and Abroad (Celadon, 2020): a former C.I.A. director chronicles his life of service, and offers some timely opinions.

Imaginary

Film and Stage

  • Going My Way, a filmwith a classic ending about the virtue of doing for others
  • Kramer vs. Kramer: a father sacrifices his careerfor his young son after the mother abandons them

Music: Composers, artists, and major works

Compositions:

  • Raga Adana, a Hindustani classical raag for late evening: performances by Fateh Ali Khan, Malini Rajurkar, S.N. Ratanjankar, Rashid Khan, Shweta Pandit, Jay Thakkar (Teental) and Ram Marathe
  • Ives, String Quartet No. 1, "From the Salvation Army" (1900)
  • Sergey Taneyev, Piano Quartet in E Major, Op. 20 (1906): all the instruments acting in service to each other, and their common cause

Fictional Narratives

Novels:

  • Alice McDermott, The Ninth Hour: A Novel (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2017): “ . . . what McDermott achieves most splendidly is the hyper-realistic portrayal of the grim, often disgusting aspects of illness and death among the poor: the boils and pustules, the grotesquely swollen or missing limbs, the ubiquitous stink of human waste. This achievement situates the life of a nun where it ideally belongs, in the difficult, often conflicting world that embraces practical competence, a commitment to giving more than could reasonably be asked and a lived belief not only in the goodness but, in Sister Jeanne’s words, the ‘fairness’ of God . . . ”
  • Meg Waite Clayton, The Postmistress of Paris: A Novel (Harper, 2021): “As a “postmistress,” Nanée does deliver messages to those in hiding from the Nazis, but she also strikes out on her own, plotting daring rescue attempts that will take her to a notorious internment camp, then deep into occupied territory.”

August 24, 2010

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Acknowledging Anticipation Appreciation Belonging Choosing Confidence Focus Honoring uniqueness Judgment Motivation Planning Prudence Remembrance Restraining Retreat Reverie Self-knowledge Tenacity Transcending ego Week 01: Human Worth

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