service service service service service servicei

 
You may be an ambassador to England or France,
You may like to gamble, you might like to dance,
You may be the heavyweight champion of the world,
You may be a socialite with a long string of pearls

But you're gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed
You're gonna have to serve somebody, Well, it may
be the devil or it may be the Lord But you're gonna
have to serve somebody. (B.Dylan)
 
You must have a genius for charity as well as for
anything else. As for Doing-good, that is one of the
professions which are full. Moreover, I have tried it
fairly, and, strange as it may seem, am satisfied that
it does not agree with my constitution.
 
Probably I should not consciously and deliberately
forsake my particular calling to do the good which
society demands of me, to save the universe from
annihilation; and I believe that a like but infinitely
greater steadfastness elsewhere is all that now
preserves it.
 
But I would not stand  between any man and his
genius; and to him who does this work, which I
decline, with his whole heartand soul and life, I
would say, Persevere, even if the  world call it
doing evil, as it is most likely they will. (Thoreau)
 
                          @@@@@@@
 
2 kinds of service, let’s say—for the sake of argument
               and maybe some de-confusion.
 
                      SERVICE PROJECTED
                           /                         \
     Inertia  Service                         Ertia Service
 
serves the convention                       serves the muse
society, welfare, needs…                 vocation, calling
 
TRUST THE PROCESS the mother of my son’s ex,
ex, ex-girlfriend advised and he did, but the process
didn’t go his way. The Process is trust worthy, but
not necessarily in terms of my terms of desire
 
That’s the problem, right there.
Thy Will o’ The Whisper Be Done as long as it
corresponds with My Will be Done  I let go, exhale,
submit my self to the flow, moment,  give IT up, trust
the process, a  beggars bowl in hand, willing recipient
as long as it suits my agenda, syllabi, measurable
goals and objectives and stands up to assessment
and evaluation procedures.   
 . .
Serve the convention and it’s pretty clear what’s
needed and how to serve. Clean pelicans, put up
storm windows, rescue wolf-dogs, visit  prisoners
and sick people, meals on wheels,  sand bagging &
flood repair. build houses, pick up litter, big-brother
& sister, trail work on the outer islands or Great
Smokey Mountains: good and plenty ways to
“do inertia service.”
 
“Ertia”  Service (muse, vocation, calling), Horse of
another collar, yoke & yoga. Not so clear cut,
Obedience: listening for the muse: calling out
my name. Hark, Hear?  I think I can. I think I can. 
 
My favorite  example of obey-ance: Barbara McClintock’s
response when  asked the key  to her Nobel Prize in Genetics.
       “Why I lean in & listen to the corn shoots” 
   
Obey! Obey! Oyez! Oyez!  listen to one’s ertia service project
calling, vocation: knowing  how to hear & trust the  process.
 
Imagine recruiting for our liberal art project.  “Give us your
children: we’ll teach them  how to obey.”  
 
Don’t be confusing one kind of service with  the other kind of
service. You’d think the two might complement, but they are
hostile forms  just as likely to interfere with each other and
not just get along. That’s what makes SERVICE (the idea)
problematic.
 
Hear the sound of  Thoreau (above) addressing the claims of
public duty.  Doing Good? Not for Henry. Leave him to sit on
his butt at  Walden and journal. Best all around if you can trust
the process. .

xxxooo, Sam (servant serving willfully)