Passing the Baton

Being a youth volunteer has expanded my horizons to include new experiences such as test prep tutor, chauffeur, and attending track meets.

Track meets consist of numerous events but the ones that caught my eye were the relay races. I noticed that certain teams passed the baton flawlessly. I also noticed that other teams fumbled the hand-off. Finally I noted times where the baton was dropped and any chance of a respectable placing was lost.

It occurred to me that the human story is also a relay race. Each generation passes the baton to the next. Individually to our children and collectively as a society.

Approaching 60, I have become acutely aware of my age. I can hear the clock ticking. I can see  the waning days of my career. I have also begun to think in terms of how I will spend my remaining "good" (healthy) years.   I also think about how I can make this world a better place before I leave it.
                                                         
I am also aware that I live in a youth-obsessed culture. 30 is the new 60.  I have observed,  rightly or wrongly, that many in the second and third decade of life are just extending their adolescence.  Experiences are all that matter.  Our individual behaviors are magnified in the aggregate. Somehow our society carries on, but it is sensitive only to immediate needs and pleasures. We are oblivious to what will happen to the next generation.

"Without the hope of posterity, for our race if not for ourselves, without the assurance that we being dead yet live, all pleasures of the mind and senses sometimes seem to me no more than pathetic and crumbling defences shored up against our ruin. " - P. D. James (Children of Men)

The investments in life that should be made now are not being made. Few seem to care that as they age they will reap a barren harvest. The investments that our society should be making are being neglected as well. What will we all harvest from the generation to come?

So that is the reason I am a youth volunteer. I am obliged to those who went before me.

"A hundred times a day I remind myself that my inner and outer life depend on the labors of other men, living and dead, and that I must exert myself in order to give in the measure as I have received and am still receiving."  -Albert Einstein

I am obliged to those who will come after me.

I am also a youth volunteer because of my faith. My faith tells me that God cared enough for this world to enter it. My faith also tells me that any kindness done to another is a kindness done to God himself.

Find your motivation whatever it is. Find a way to invest in the next generation. Not only will your eyes be opened, but your heart will be as well.