Last week, I started my service work at St. Patrick’s parish. Every Wednesday I go down to Foley Hall in the basement of the church with Tyler and Regan and help out with the suppers that they serve. We do a variety of tasks, ranging from making mashed potatoes to serving food to cleaning up afterwards. Anyone is allowed to come to these suppers on any given week, so a wide variety of people from different backgrounds come for various reasons.
Something that stood out to me was how ungracious some of the people were. The majority of them were polite and very thankful that suppers like this are available every night in Dubuque, but others were just rude. Most of the time, it would just be a comment complaining about how the food tasted or why other tables got to eat before they did. One other time, though, a woman came back into the kitchen and actually semi-raised her voice when complaining that the fans should not be on anymore since it’s no longer summer, and she was cold. We had the fans on because it was hot in the kitchen, but I just thought that it was rude that she would come back there and complain while the other people were grateful for the service we were providing. It was interesting how some of the people seemed like they were just there to get their food and leave, while others enjoyed themselves and socialized.
One other observation that Regan pointed out to Tyler and me was the number of veterans that have showed up both weeks. It just seemed unfortunate to us that these men served for our country (most likely in Vietnam), but now our country is not taking care of them after they returned. Maybe these veterans just received some bad breaks in life after the war that other veterans did not receive, or maybe the country isn’t providing enough for the veterans. Interestingly, while I was talking to one of the workers that helps out with the supper every week, he told me he attended Loras College back in the 60s only to avoid the draft. He missed out on the draft only because his parents could afford to send him to college, while others were drafted because they were not as fortunate as him. That whole situation reminded me of the situation that the narrator from the Invisible Man was put in. His situation involved race issues instead of wealth, but they are similar. The narrator had to work twice as hard to achieve something in life compared to the whites because he started out lower as a result of his race. It was kind of the same with the veterans. Only because their parents couldn’t afford to send them to college to avoid the draft, they are now eating at these suppers every week. Meanwhile, the worker was sent to college to avoid the draft and is a successful businessman because his parents could afford it. The veterans could have been just as successful as him had they been sent to college instead of the war, but because they never had that opportunity, their lives took a completely different route.
I’m eager to continue with this service each week to not only help people that are less fortunate than us, but also to see what I can learn and take from the time spent there.
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I think that your blog was very interesting. I never would have guessed that there was a high number of veterans who come to these dinner and I really enjoyed the perspective that you put on wealth and avoiding the draft. I suppose I was also taken back that people didn’t come off as being grateful. In most stories or volunteer opportunities that you hear about it seems that the stories that get passed on are the ones that are grateful for what you are doing. It kind of reminded me of the Dorothy Day reading assignment from this week because regardless of how the people that they helped allocated their resources or acted, their goal was a community of love and they couldn’t condemn or take things away from the people that came to them. This reminded me of despite what people say how frustrating your service might be hearing people complain and needing to still be cheerful and not spiteful in return.
Sounds like you are enjoying everything, though! Good job!
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