MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
Time for our series Here to Help, which looks at service and community in America. When we put the call out for your stories of volunteering or those of someone in your community, we got more than 200 responses from all across the country. You nominated volunteer librarians and scout leaders.
ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
You told us stories of volunteering in food pantries, municipal boards and community compost groups. Here's just one example. Leah Lawson (ph) from Asheville, North Carolina, called in.
LEAH LAWSON: I'm nominating my friend, Allison, who is now the founder of Appalachian Community Relief.
SHAPIRO: She says when Hurricane Helene hit, Allison Hargus jumped into action.
LAWSON: She pretty much immediately went to the Ingles parking lot in Black Mountain and just started helping people. She became, like, the point person for relief in that area. She has a 3-year-old. She has a family. And she just did everything to make sure that her community was taken care of and, like, at the expense of, like, her own needs. Like, the girl couldn't even shower. Like, we didn't have cell service or anything.
SHAPIRO: Daniel Luthi from Washington, Illinois, volunteers for the Red Cross. And he wrote in to say, being a full-time registered nurse, volunteering is my outlet to do other things in the community. It helps keep me engaged in my community and, I feel, strengthens my mental health, he said.
KELLY: Many of you wrote us to say that volunteering connects you to something bigger than yourself, and that is something our next guest has been thinking about. Vivek Murthy served as the 19th and the 21st surgeon general of the United States. Before leaving office in January, he wrote his parting prescription for America, in which he highlights the benefits of volunteering. I asked why he felt compelled to explore this.
VIVEK MURTHY: This parting prescription was my effort to answer a nagging question - what is underneath the deeper sense of unhappiness that so many people feel that I encountered across America? And I realized that there were three elements that we all need for fulfillment in our lives - our relationships, a sense of purpose and engagement in service.
KELLY: Murthy says, of all the advisories that he issued as surgeon general, this one really seemed to strike a chord, yielding direct emails from strangers.
MURTHY: They were very interesting. They were very personal emails that said, I have been feeling this sense of emptiness in my life and couldn't quite put my finger on what was missing until I read this. Or I've been trying to think about how to raise my kids to give them the best chance at living a happy and fulfilled life, and I feel like here I have perhaps the beginnings of a blueprint in how I can do so. So it's been really quite substantial, the feedback, but very gratifying to see that these elements are in fact resonating with people.
KELLY: What you're calling for sounds noble. I mean, it's hard to argue with. It sounds so good. Is there a specific one or two things that you would point people to who may not be going to read the whole prescription right now but are thinking, yeah, I could get on board with that?
MURTHY: Well, here's what I would say. Nobody is opposed to having good relationships. But if we look at how we're living our lives, more and more, society is pushing us in a different direction, of substituting online relationships for what used to be offline in-person relationships...
KELLY: So true.
MURTHY: ...For substituting short forms of communication, a quick text here or there, for an actual substantive conversation with somebody where you can really understand who they are. So for anybody out there who might be listening who might be thinking, you know, I've been struggling maybe with loneliness or lack of community or feeling that sense of emptiness, one place we can start is to actually look at our own relationships and ask, can we spend 15 minutes a day reaching out to somebody we care about to have a conversation? During that conversation, can we give them the benefit of our full attention and not be distracted by our devices? And most importantly, can we find a few minutes in each day to help someone else? Those small acts of service, as seemingly small or insubstantial as they may be, are extraordinarily powerful in forging greater connection for us and another person.
KELLY: So we did a callout to people to share their stories as part of this series. And I want to share one of those moments that we got back with you and get your reaction. This is from Colleen Teixeira Moffat. She is a volunteer at the Greater DC Diaper Bank.
COLLEEN TEIXEIRA MOFFAT: When things feel a little chaotic and out of control globally, in my own life, like, I always feel good when I left - 100% of the time.
KELLY: I mean, to that point, she always feels good when she left, that's very much in line with what you're saying. To those who are skeptical, you know, the need - there's so much need. There are so many challenges, so many crises, how much can an hour, two hours of volunteer work do to solve those problems? How much can it matter?
MURTHY: Well, a little bit of service goes a long way in terms of its impact on our community but also in terms of its impact on us. For an individual, the data is increasingly clear that service has a positive impact on our physical health, reducing our risk of heart disease and our overall mortality. It has an impact on reducing mental health symptoms as well, particularly depression and anxiety symptoms. It also actually improves our cognitive function. We find strong associations there in the data. But when it comes to loneliness and building community, service is one of the most powerful antidotes we have to loneliness.
Look, this is a time where many people are reading the news, looking around them and feeling a sense of despair about the world. They're feeling drained by the conflict and the polarization we see around us. And I must say, so many people say to me, Mary Louise, that it feels like the world has gotten meaner, like we care less about each other - there's more cruelty around us. What service reminds us is who we really are. It's an opportunity for us to experience kindness and compassion. It's a reminder that who we really are is actually not always what we see online or in the news. No one's covering the story of the person who's volunteering at the diaper bank, the person who's rolling up their sleeves and helping kids and teachers in a school who might be struggling. But those are the moments that we connect deeply with another person, and those are moments that remind us also that we have so much to give to the world.
KELLY: Vivek Murthy, your latest tour in government came to a close in January. You're back in civilian life. So let me put the question to you - are you volunteering? Tell me a story from your own life.
MURTHY: Yeah, so I've been looking at how I live my life now that I'm a civilian again. And a big part of it has actually - my realization has been that I need to spend time helping other people and supporting other people. And one of the things that helped me realize that was not just this parting prescription, but a few months before I ended my tour of duty, I got a late-night call from my friend DJ (ph) - I'm just calling to check on you. And I was surprised. I thought he needed something. He said, look, I know that you're going to be transitioning soon, and these can be hard, these life changes. And I just want you to know I'm here for you, and I want to know how I can help. And I was so touched. So I'm now trying to do that for others who are transitioning as well, either leaving government or who have lost their job and are trying to find a new job.
I find that we can be the help that each other needs. We can be so much of the relief that we seek. We can find that in our relationships with each other. And sometimes we think, hey, I can't really help somebody else 'cause I can't fix their problems. And this is something I think is so important to underscore. You don't have to fix someone's problems in order to support them and help them heal. Simply by showing up, by listening to someone, we can remind them that they matter and that they are not alone in their journey. And that's what my friends have done for me. It's what I'm now seeking to do for other people as well.
KELLY: Well, thank you for showing up and sharing these thoughts with us in our studio today. Nice to see you.
MURTHY: Thanks so much, Mary Louise. Good to be with you.
KELLY: Vivek Murthy. He served as the 19th and 21st surgeon general of the United States.
(SOUNDBITE OF TAY IWAR SONG, "REFLECTION STATION") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
