The Soles of Service

I am a student at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. Currently I am enrolled in a class which explores service. In class we have read and discussed different philosophies of service; some with which I completely agree and some which I take with a grain of salt. Over the course of the semester my thoughts, ideas, and beliefs concerning service have been tested, expanded, and refined. Although I am still forming my own philosophy of service, I would like to share one aspect of it, which I believe is cross-cutting and demonstrated in the following:

Candice is a runway model for Vera Wang in NYC. She is 23 years old and lives in Manhattan with three other models . She is out every night either on the cat walk or at the new club opening.

What You Did Not Know: Candice grew up on a dairy farm in Montana and woke up every morning at 2:00 a.m. to milk cows. She also won first place in the county fair for showing her sheep.

Rand has worked in construction for the past 15 years. He lives in South Dakota and has a family of five. Rand works five days a week and typically spends his weekends working in his yard or playing with his kids.

What You Did Not Know: Rand has a passion for opera. During his childhood, his grandfather used to take him every weekend to the local theater. Every summer Rand and his wife go the Boston Opera House to attend a performance.

Sara works as a waitress at the local fifty’s dinner on weekends. She is 16 years old and this is her first job. Sara is in her sophomore year of high school and sings in the school’s jazz ensemble.

What You Did Not Know: Sara was born and raised in Sweden because of her dad’s job. Her family also travels a lot. Sara is fluent in four languages: English, Swedish, French, and German.

Steve is the CFO of a major corporation based out of San Francisco. He is 35 years old and a Giants fanatic. Steve is gone every other week on travel to assess the different branches of his business.

What You Did Not Know: Steve participates annually in triathlons. He trains six days a week running, biking, spinning, and swimming. Even when he is traveling for business he makes sure to book hotels with workout facilities or near to a gym or trails.

Blair is a singles tennis player for the University of Florida. She has been training since she was seven years old and spent her summers in tennis camps. Blair has played in two championship matches for her school.

What You Did Not Know: Blair loves salsa dancing. Every weekend she goes out dancing unless she has a tournament or match. She knows all the moves, is never standing, and always has a partner.

These fictional characters were made to demonstrate the age old philosophy that “you don’t know a person until you have walked a mile in his or her shoes.” In each of the cases above you are told something about each person, which would be fairly easy to discover though acquaintance or even by observation. However, a little more time spent with that person might undercover the unknown. You might learn the darnedest things about people like Candice or Rand. You might learn interesting facts like in the case of Sara. Or, you might discover hidden talents and passions like with Steve and Blair. In all cases, you LEARN.

My philosophy is that service allows walk a few steps in someone else’s shoes. I know that in each of the instances where I have served someone and even served with someone, no matter the degree of our acquaintance, I either learn something new about them or I just plain get to know them a little better. I can also say that I ALWAYS end up developing an increased degree of love for that person. Through serving people, our perspectives on those people are changed, and our philosophy of life is broadened.

So here's to SERVICE: go do a little and learn a little