Voluntariness

I had the wonderful opportunity to attend the TEDx Helsinki event last Wednesday. A lot of inspiring speeches. I got especially inspired by the speech about voluntariness as a phenomenon. And as a matter of fact, the lack of voluntariness, as the speaker Anssi Vanjoki put it. In our culture of "what's in it for me" and especially "how much will I get paid for doing this or that", or "is it within my job description", the phenomenon of voluntariness is worth being reflected upon. I suppose that Vanjoki defined voluntariness as something that has to do with being a member in nonprofit associations where your memberships are based on passion for doing and learning. And where the goal is not about getting financial support but about being part of a community, having fun, refining talents or even wanting to make our world a better place. Vanjoki asked "where has all the voluntariness gone". One of my answers is, we don't have the energy for that if we by voluntariness mean that people should take part in politics, sports clubs, choirs or anything else. Families with children are already voluntarily doing fundraising for camp schools for example, in different housing communities people are organizing spring-cleaning events and frail parents are taken care of. But maybe it was not this kind of voluntariness Vanjoki was worried about. Maybe it was more about the attitude. He was maybe looking for the scout attitude "do a good turn daily" or as he said in Finnish "aina valmis" (always ready). Maybe this is the crux of the matter? My life would really be much easier if my children would volunteer all the time in all the chores that housekeeping includes. Instead of always having to put energy on convincing why something should be done I would have three youngsters in a row wanting to sign up for the job ;-). Utopia? Yes, but it's worth discussing anyway. And maybe we will sow the seed of voluntariness in our childrens minds?

PS. This concept has some power issues too...