30 Days to a Better Man Day 20: Perform Service
Today’s task: Commit to do some service. You obviously don’t have to do the service in the next 24 hours. Your task is simply to find a project or opportunity you’d like to volunteer for and sign up if you can. Or come up with a project that you’re going to create yourself.
http://artofmanliness.com/2009/06/19/30-days-to-a-better-man-day-20...
http://artofmanliness.com/2009/06/19/30-days-to-a-better-man-day-20...
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Andrew Barbour on -
Charlie, I'm sorry to hear about those circumstances. Good for you.
I have to say, I really like the euphemism "ultimate healing". If you don't mind, I'm going to borrow that.
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Permalink Reply by Chris Partida on -
This weekend my good friend Andrew Villalobos Jr. (a member here) got married, I was a late addition to his wedding party, and very grateful to be invited. He and I are in a band together, and for the last few months have been practicing hard to get a special set list learned for his wife-to-be. Trying to do both that, and get ready for his own wedding were really starting to show. He held his composure well, but I could tell that towards the last few days to the 20th, he was getting more and more stressed.
Now that the story is set, here's why I set it:
Wednesday night he asked if I knew of any good places to get a haircut and straight razor shave. From here on out I knew exactly my plan. Come noon on Thursday, I made the appointments for him, our friend Ty and myself to go on Friday. Since the stress was piling on, I knew that a trip to Hawleywood's Barber Shop in Long Beach, CA would be exceptionally relaxing for him. A trip to Joe Jost's afterwards would surely put that relaxation in stone. He also requested to do some hat shopping, fine with me!
Friday came, we all met up and headed to the shop. I drove all of us and took care of all the planning. His experience at the barber shop was a great one. He had a beer while reading men's magazines and soaking it all in. His cut and shave went great and afterwards he didn't have a care in the world. We finished up and set off for a good hat that he could wear to the reception, after a few stops we had no luck, so we headed to Joe Jost's to have a few drinks and play some shuffleboard. That worked, every bit of it. The goblets of Shiner Bock, meat platter with plenty of mustard and shuffleboard made for putting his mind at ease. We hit a few more hat shops before finding the (near) perfect hat (different brand is all, wanted a Brixton), we were all smiles and on our way back home.
Flash forward to the next day, the big day, there was plenty to be done and I wanted to help as much as I could so that he wouldn't have to, the entire day until the reception was over.
End of story.
My service? I wanted to put one of my best friend's mind at ease as much as possible on what has been one of the most important days of his life.
Congratulations, my friends!
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Permalink Reply by Daniel Welch on -
I had this one down cold! I'm a volunteer firefighter at a local department, and we had a semi-annual fundraiser this past weekend at which I spent most of the day helping, and working with strangers... I'm telling you guys, it's definitely a satisfying feeling!
D
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Permalink Reply by Brett McKay on -
That's great, Daniel. I've always been intrigued by the idea of being a volunteer firefighter. What's it like? What kind of time commitment does it require?
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Permalink Reply by James Milholen on -
A Lot of commitment. My grandfather was the Chief of the Volunteer fire fighters at hte department by his house. He was out of the house all the time, all hours of the night. I don't remember much of it, as he had retired by the time i was 4, but yeah, my Grandmother will tell me how often he was away from home on a call.
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Permalink Reply by James Milholen on
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Freddie Mac encourages its employees to do community service, and has an organization within the company called "Hometeam" that often does work with things like Habitat for Humanity. I will be looking into what I might be able to do thru them in the next few weeks. Once I get settled in there and find out what my options are, I;ll reply here again and let you guys know what i've chosen.
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Permalink Reply by Preston on -
Andrew- Thanks for the reminder about Kiva. That has been on my mental to do list. Now I can cross it off since I made a donation.
Other service-
I serve on a Community Emergency Response Team, give blood regularly, and give donations to a couple of charities monthly.
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Permalink Reply by Don Davis on -
this is a great task for me right now. Last weekend I took my family to a food bank to help sort and pack food. it took us a couple of hours on Saturday morning. We are now planning on going to volunteer 2 times a month.
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Permalink Reply by Ray Daniels on -
My boys and I helped serve Thanksgiving dinner at our community center and I've been trying to coordinate better recycling in the apartment complex where we live, if that counts.
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