We cannot sell what we don't own and we cannot give what we do not have.  We cannot dispose what we don't possess and we cannot pass on what we don't hold.  The things we own are ours to enjoy and pass on and our talents are the special gifts of our niche and forte.  No one loses his talent nor diminishes the light of his candle by lighting a thousand unlit candles.  We all have different gifts of talent.  Athletes don't play the same sports and the same games.  Musicians don't play the same instruments and the same music.  Students don't read the same books and are not enrolled in the same courses of study.  Professionals don't have the same disciplines and the same expertise.  Life is a wonderland of miscellaneous talents.
 
Talents don't become secondhand just because they are used just as service does not become obsolete because it is given to others.  Talent is God's gift to us and what we do with it is our gift to others.  The wealth of a nation is not in its gold mines, it is not in its resources.  It is in the graveyard of unused talents.  The proper use of talent is a call to serve others.  Time, talent and treasure belong to everyone, they are possessed by everyone.  Every calling requires us to serve but not every service leaves a legacy of service.  We don't see traces of a legacy of service in power struggles among politicians.  There is no semblance of a legacy of service among business tycoons whose soul mate is profit.  Time, talent and treasure are devoted to advance their own selfish interests.
 
Self-abnegation, self-denial and unselfishness are traits of character radiating a legacy of service.  When we give our time, talent and treasure without consideration and without something in return, we emphasize the importance of service and the insignificance of compensation.  We define our legacy in terms of what we have done for others and not what we have done for ourselves.  It goes without saying that the more we are losing, the more we are winning.  The measure of life is not how long we live, it is in how well we live it.  It is not measured by its duration but rather is measured by its donation.  To live and let live does not come handy but it is the very essence of a legacy of service.  To paraphrase the English bulldog, Winston Churchill, we make a living by what we get and we make a life by what we give.  A culture of giving divests us of our possessive nature paving the way to handing down a legacy of service.
 
We have been told that it is more blessed to give than to receive.  If we believe that were so, then by the same syllogism it is also true that it is better to serve than be served.  To be a giver in lieu of being a taker is basically the rationale and the bottom line in a legacy of service.  Service ought to be our passion for it is the secret of success.  To serve is preferable to service when the benefit involved is more general.  Service is not interchangeable with the word "serve."  We serve when we use our time, talent and treasure to help others get through.  In a commercial setting, services are valued in dollars.  That is why a legacy of service does not belong to those whose services are paid for but to those whose services make us beholden with a debt of gratitude.
 
Service is everyone's business but to serve is not everybody's business.  Our generation is tied up to a contagious culture of self-help, self-service and self-enrichment.  Cutthroat competition and fly-by-night operation promulgated social injustice, widespread unfair distribution of wealth and income inequality.  Everyone seems preoccupied around the clock to speeding up self-enrichment and making one's future stable and secure.  We don't want to bothered anymore.  Our kindness to others is cruelty to ourselves especially since all our time goes to self-service, all our efforts go to self-help and all our haulage goes toward self-enrichment.  The predatory practices of lenders and plantation mentality of employers made us work for them to the neglect of those suffering from misfortune.  The creditors and employers we serve override our altruistic nature and this phenomenon caused us to become benefit-oriented in coping with our obligations to them.
 
In the best and worst of times, the ageless truth is that no motivation is bigger and no interest is greater than self-interest.  It is an obdurate fact of life that there is no such thing as eternal friendship but only such thing as eternal self-interest.  Every benefit we seek to obtain from whatever source is motivated by self-interest.  We join associations, clubs and organizations because there is some form of benefit.  Aliens strive to obtain green cards because there are benefits in having green cards.  Immigrants become naturalized because there are benefits in naturalization.  Homeowners seek refinancing because there are benefits from refinancing.  We give charitable contributions because of the benefit of tax deduction.  To be engrossed with benefits detracts from a legacy of service by any tortured definition.
 
Let's pause for a moment and take a hard look at the vagaries of people whose pleasures impoverished us.  Prodigals in the business community take turns in fleecing their prey in a trusting nation.  Social problems escalate from bad to worse and continue to be exacerbated by the propitious extravagance of monetary sharks whose financial empires were built on deception, fraud and greed.  The controlling influence of financial institutions in the ways of government made government a servile state which is the root cause of unfair distribution of wealth.  A year's income of a rank and filer is a day's income of a CEO.  A week's income of a professional athlete is a year's income of a heavily-stressed doctor.  The rich become richer and the poor become poorer because government doesn't regulate the income of the white collar worker but both government and white collar worker stringently regulate the incomes of blue collar workers.  Government service works best in pampering financial institutions who in turn work best to enslave us with lopsided adhesion contracts.
 
Education and progress, science and technology brought us to where we are today.  We are enlightened by the ignorance of others and our progress grows from the destitution of others.  Science superseded the dignity of human labor and technology devalued the worth of human service.  The comfort and convenience we derived from science and technology brought misery and misfortune to the lives of millions.  If this is what progress and prosperity means, if this is what modern civilization entails, then something is wrong with our moral values.  I don't believe in progress that diminishes humanity, I don't believe in civilization that multiplies misfortune.  I believe that progress, humanity and civilization are inseparably tagged to a legacy of service.  Without a legacy of service, it will always be dark under the rising sun.
 
To serve or be served, to give or to receive, to be or not to be is everyone's call.  What we do for ourselves dies with us but what we do for others will always remain.  A legacy of service is a generous gesture of affection, an edifying labor of love in the heavy yoke of public service.  All our unsung heroes have handed down a legacy of service that continues to be corroded by a marauding penchant for self-help, self-service and self-enrichment in the vineyard of public service.  We are a religious nation ruled by ungodly leaders and this paradox is a dilemma that makes it improbable to leave a legacy of service in public service.  If a seed is sown to multiply, so will people die to live only with a legacy of service.  The urgent need to live and let live is truly the beacon of a legacy of service.

 

 

Munting Nayon News Magazine