June 23, 2010
Ruining Lives
There’s a quip that gets repeated a lot – that these long-term volunteer programs will “ruin your life.” Some might argue that the opposite is true – spending a year or more working for peace and justice, living in community, and working for little to nothing actually enrich and transform, opening us up to the beauty and possibility in the world like nothing else. Actually, I think most former volunteers would agree with that argument. But this recent conversation about decision-making reminded me why we talk about volunteer service ruining our lives.
Once you know what’s possible – how little money can sustain you, how life-giving community living can be, how a small individual effort can in fact make a difference in the world – it’s hard to go back to what you thought you knew, or what you thought life should be like. Old plans just don’t seem to fit, anymore. All of a sudden, you have to take into account this glimpse you’ve gotten of life lived another way, and it throws things into tangled messes that you’re left to unravel.