Intentional Service

This is going to sound kind of goofy, maybe, but I've always bristled at the term Public Servant. The idea of being a servant to anyone just rubs me the wrong way. And, of course, I made a career in public service, as a teacher, a counselor, and as a child support professional, I spent about 39 years serving the public.

Ironically, I'm proud of the work I did as a public servant and proud of the work of my many colleagues, in Washington state and across the country. We improved many lives, we strived to do a better job than we'd done before, and we achieved amazing things despite the challenges of bureaucracy and ever-shifting political and budget environments.

Recently a friend asked me to appear as a guest on a podcast she co-hosts, and naturally I said I would. When I asked her about the topic, she said we'd talk about public service. I had a few days to think about the subject, comb down the bristles, and give it a go. I'll let you be the judge as to whether I did the subject justice, if you'd like to listen to episode five at olytalks.com.

While I hope I didn't let her down and did a decent job, what I really appreciate is the reflection I did in preparation for the interview. I discovered that I was a bit self-absorbed, thinking of public service in terms of my limited experience. Of course, I wasn't unaware that a broad spectrum of public servants existed. It's just that I operated under the irrational presumption that our experiences were all pretty similar.

It took very little thought to shatter my self-delusion, and I'm relieved that I managed to do it on my own instead of someone slapping me in the face with the obvious flaw in my thinking. Fire fighters and politicians and Navy Seals and child support professionals and teachers -- public servants all -- work in completely different environments with completely different challenges and pressures. It is almost ridiculous to compare the job of a fire fighter and of the person who takes your picture for your driver's license. But as different as the various professions are, they do work for the common good, providing a service to us all, which we value as a society.

My hat is off to all public servants. Wear the label proudly.