VIRTUAL VOLUNTEER MAKES AN OFFER TO REFUSE

What is a virtual volunteer?

My wife and I were making quiche together. She seemed a little down.

Earlier she’d asked me to bring the Halloween decorations tote downstairs. It struck me as an irony to decorate for a hands on holiday in the coronavirus era.

I shared the feeling. No wonder she seemed a little down?

While I was chopping and whipping and stirring the egg bowl, I said, “Honey, why don’t we decorate for Halloween later, move some pictures around. What do you think?”

She was stunned, as if I’ve never made decorating plans. I have, at least I think I have.

“Do you really mean it? We don’t have to decorate, but it was sweet for you to offer,” she said.

The first thing I thought was virtual volunteer. In my man-brain I thought, ‘I’m off the decorating hook.’

That notion was overridden by my married man brain.

When is an offer to engage, to participate, to start something and see it through to the finish, good enough? After all, there was engagement.

No participation or actually doing anything, but there was the initial engagement.

What do you get with the effort of a real virtual volunteer?

AARP has a few answers:

• A good listener? Offer you ear and emotional support by staffing a crisis hotline.
• An attorney? Offer to give free legal advice to NGOs.
• A teacher? Depending on your instructional area, teach education courses online, create curricula, mentor a young person via Skype or give free webinars.
• Fluent in another language? There are many groups worldwide that could use help with translations—and individuals and staff who could benefit from language training.
• An administrative guru? You can do many admin tasks from your own computer, like answering emails, for understaffed nonprofits.
• A research savvy scholar? Help with analysis, data entry, research or database maintenance or construction.

I didn’t see my specialty on the list: Busy Blogger. Self indulged slacker. Beer guzzler. Just kidding around.

My special powers are more in line with being available, emotionally and physically available, and writing about it. Like now.

After we finished food prep, we cooked, then packed it all up and headed out to visit a couple of expecting parents. My son is the dad, and my daughter in law is right on the verge of motherhood.

Together they look like a millennial Renaissance painting.

Being around them gave a big lift to the day. We got home too late to get Halloweened up, but I’m going to do it for my girl.