"It's been proven that doing good makes us feel good, so there's no reason we cannot lean more into it"
"Recently as I sat in a church pew listening to the eulogy for the mother of a good friend who had died, I was struck by the recurring use of the word "service"."
"While we have never been more connected, more and more of us are increasingly isolated from the communities we live in."
"Many of us are old enough to remember a time when a whole townland showed up to bring in a crop of potatoes or hay, but today this feels like a snapshot of a vanished world."
Doing good improves personal well-being and people can and should lean more into acts of service. A funeral eulogy repeatedly invoked the word "service," underscoring service as a core social value. Modern life offers unprecedented digital connectedness while many individuals experience deepening isolation from local communities. Older generations recall whole townlands assembling to harvest potatoes or hay, reflecting dense mutual aid networks now diminished. Restoring everyday acts of service and neighbourly cooperation can counter loneliness, strengthen local ties, and revive practical communal solidarity that once sustained rural communities.
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