Seconds on Humble Pie
March 18, 2010 
2 Comments
I was surprised and honored to learn that I was voted Spokane’s 2nd best “Community Volunteer” today. It is a bit mind boggling since the title itself can mean a lot of different things to different people.
It is always a gamble with the Best of categories. Some are here today gone tomorrow, others are irreverent, random, or just blatantly designed to drive ad sales. But think of it from the newspaper’s perspective. You can only have so many titles under each meta-category, and you have to hit a sweet spot with things that aren’t a foregone conclusion that a decent number of folks are actually familiar with.
Artwork by ANeMonE
I find it telling that 6 out of 14 of the people topics are TV and/or sports related. Personally, I’d like to see more of the following:
- Best Community Safety Officer
- Best Environmental Advocate
- Best Public Health Proponent
- Best Social/Economic Justice Crusader
- Best Neighborhood Leader
I’m sure that some acknowledgment for these people exists in various nonprofit groups and professional societies, but it is a whole different ball game when probing the mass mind.
I attended my first GU match in 2008 and had to ask a lot about the teams and their players. My friend’s father, who had been patiently answering my questions eventually shot back, “Are you even from around here?”
Photo courtesy of the Spokesman-Review.
So it is with humility that I admit I wasn’t familiar with former coach Dan Fitzgerald before reading his bio in the “Best of” and learning about his untimely recent death. My grandfather died unexpectedly in his 60′s and it scarred my mom and her sisters irrevocably, so my heart goes out to Fitzgerald’s family and fans. Just to consider that he died in the line of duty while at a Ronald McDonald house fundraiser, this seems like a fitting tribute to someone who contributed so much on so many different levels.
About the Author
Mariah, congrats to you that you were able to turn your own award into a touching tribute to somebody else. You have a great gift for writing and a truly humble spirit.
I heard you speak at a recent Humanist meeting and signed on to your Spokanvelist site soon after. I just got my first two posts from your site.
I wanted to say that I saw something in your presentation at the Humanist meeting that I think is worth mentioning.
In short most people of my generation and beyond think that first you define a goal and then look for and eventually draw enough supportive people out from their daily lives and assemble them around that goal in an effort to achieve it. And then hopefully no one offends any one else in the group enough to derail the project and if everything goes just right goodwill accumulates between everyone and after the project is done you have a contact list of folks who might want to do something else worthwhile in the future.
Your approach, however, sounded profoundly different. If I understood correctly, you were implying that to be successful at living first you start with goodwill developed through social contact. And after that, what ever needs to happen happens much more naturally because not only is the goodwill established but the awareness of what needs to be done is communicated in a rapid organic way – call it “the positive gossip effect.“ This is in addition to the fact that goodwill is its own reward.
It is interesting to learn about different generational cultures. I wish yours the best of luck in grappling with the growing challenges that are facing our world.