Recently I happend to watch a show on social interaction among people around the world and one segment dealt with New Yorkers. The general perception of people not from New York being that with New Yorkers crammed into contact with one another, it had caused them to develope introspective personalities, shutting themselves off from one another. Because of this, they were thought to be less likely to be willing to interact with others in the form of answering queries or pleas for directions, help, etc. from strangers on the street.
This tuns out to be a general mis-conseption. They are in practice all too willing to give strangers advice, answer questions, point out directions. Alert you if you are doing something incorrectly (even when you didn’t ask), help pick up a sheaf of papers dropped by a passeby, all things which socially groomed humans are known to do in their interactions with each other on a daily basis. They want to be helpfull, and they wnt to share their part of the human knowledge they posses and ad it to the common whole.
When you posess knowledge, that knowledge is only worthwhile if you share it in some fashion. Knowledge that just rattles around in your scull and ferments is not going to produce anything for you but vinegar. And there is much satisfaction to be gained from sharing your knowledge and skills.
Say you have the ability to take some milk from a cow, and through your knowledge and skill, you can transform that milk into rich creamy butter, which could then be spread on top of a nice piece of fresh warm bread, (that someone else’s knowedge let them make). That would be very usefull information, but not if it remains inside you, unused. If it does not get passed on and handed down, it is a dead end .
When you share your knowledge and skills you derive an immense amount of satisfaction from passing it along, sometimes completely out of proportion with the tidbit you shared. The sensation of satisfaction is not unlike hearing that you have won something. Some free gift or some competition. The same type of pleasurable feeling.
When you supply that missing piece of information, it is like you are standing in the same room with the bomb squad guys when they are trying to diffuse the nuke that is about to go off and snuff out hummnaity. But fortunatly for humanity, you were there to tell them, “The green wire guys, not the red wire, the GREEN wire”. And by sharing your piece of the pie that makes up human knowledge, you have become a hero for your species.
Appleseed understands this because Applesed instructors come to the program, first, to serve their sacred obligation to their country by teaching at events. But they remain because of the intense satisfaction they derive from instructing. That same wonderful feeling they receivefrom being able to help their nation and pass along their knowledge of rifle marksmanshipand safety, and, the knowledge they pass on about the men and women involved in the birth of our nation on April 19th, 1775.
We do not pay our instructors in the Appleseed program, they are all volunteers. So why do they do it? Because it satisfies that genetic obligation to their fellow human beings of sharing information that will help ensure our survival. It satisfies that obligation to pass along information that will ensure the survival of our nation also.
Wow! That is some excitng news. The Appleseed program is providing Americans from all walks of life the opportunity to become heros. The opportunity to do something, to become a mentor and help someone along their path to becoming a Rifleman.
At some point in your life you had a teacher or good friend that really moved your life difection in some way. You know what I am talking about, or if you don’t, you missed one of the high points of your life. When you met someone and ther teaching or friendship and kind words had a great deal of impact in your life,
As an Appleseed instructor, you have a chance to be that person and make a change in someone’s life. Let me tell you that I have not been to an Appleseed event where a life was not changed, not a single event, And that is one of the things that keeps me coming back week after week and pushing the program as hard as I can, Because I know that I am making a difference, I am doing something to add my little piece of the puzzle to the pool of human knowledge and to help insure the survival of my fellow Americans and of the country I love.
Become an Appleseed instructor and help pass on the skills heritage and knowledge of those who came before you to your posterity.