I want to be thoroughly used up when I die…

I was reading a great book* when I saw this quote. So, I stopped reading and immediately Googled this. I needed to know where it came from because I absolutely understood and relate to this. I never feel more alive than when I am being of service to others and this quote is about service. It was written by George Bernard Shaw and the full quote is “I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work the more I live. I rejoice in life for its own sake.”

I was raised to do service. From when I was a little kid, my parents, mostly my mom, modeled this behavior. When I was in grade school, my mother was the PTA newsletter editor. Then, she was our Cup Scout Den Mother. When I hit High School, she volunteered with the local volunteer ambulance corp and the rest of the family followed suit.

My own service career began in grade school where I was a crossing guard and milk and cookie monitor.  In High School, when my mom got involved in the ambulance corp, I did do, eventually becoming head dispatcher. I was too young to ride the “bus” but when I could, I did that too. I was an EMT** my senior year in High School.

In college, I was very active in student event planning and general campus organizing activities.

Then, my service stopped. I don’t know why. I really wasn’t involved in much or anything really. I didn’t realize until I wrote about this here (see, this is why writing is a tool and thinking is not), that there was a long empty place in my life where I was of service to nobody outside myself. Is it any wonder those were the years I used to make my way to over 300 pounds? Probably not.

Today I do service for OA and for my community. I give back where I can and when I can. I have to be careful. I can go overboard on service like I use to go overboard on my food.  At least when I over do the service, I am helping others and because of my Overeaters Anonymous program, I can adjust and move on without regret.

No matter how long you’ve been involved with OA, I encourage you to do service and, don’t wait too long to do service above the group level. Find your Intergroup meeting and pitch in. It matters, a lot. Be used up when you die. I will. What exactly are you saving it for?

*I saw the quote on page 286 of the paperback edition of “Three Cups of Tea” by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin, a book about the struggle to bring about peace through education for all children and the empowerment of women in the Muslim world. This is such a moving account of a man and a vision, so clearly focused on the real solution to our war with extremism. I when I say extremism, I don’t just mean in Muslim countries. Extremism exists in the west as well.

**At that time, EMT training was just a little more advance than first aid. We didn’t give drugs or de-fibrillate. We did eat donuts though. Lots and lots of donuts.