Serving Society

It all started with a game of Texas Hold’Em held in a bookstore to raise money for charity. I had pocket aces (as shown), a very strong hand. I should have slow-played them and let others raise the pot, but I was a newbie and all excited, so I didn’t make the most of the opportunity. Shortly thereafter, I left the game.

(Texas Hold’Em became trendy and popular in 2004 with the publication of Jim McManus’s Positively Fifth Street. It led to such oddities as the World Series of Poker (yes, there is one) being televised. The title of the book came from the arcane but intriguing insider terminology used to describe the various parts of the game, such as the flop, the turn, and the river (aka Fifth Street), which refer to when the communal cards are exposed. Naturally, I was drawn to a game that had its own language. But I digress.)

After I left the poker table, I was drawn into a conversation with a woman who was watching the game. She wanted to know whether I did anything besides play poker. (Yes, there are professional poker players.) When I told her that I was in educational publishing, she relaxed. Her point was that professional poker playing served society not at all, but educational publishing filled a valuable niche in service to education, a worthy goal.

That got me thinking. Who exactly serves society and in what capacity?

I think we all agree on some of the basics: teachers, medical personnel, police, religious figures, volunteer workers, and firefighters. But are they the only ones who perform worthwhile services?

Politicians are not held in high regard these days, and neither are lawyers. But when they act on principles (if they ever do), they serve society by making laws and administering justice.

I’m less open to the idea that entertainers serve society by entertaining us. Of course, some entertainers (and I’m including professional athletes in that) donate large sums of money to assorted worthy causes or start charities or foundations that serve some segments of society, usually the underserved. But those people, it seems to me, are philanthropists (good-deed-doers) who also entertain.

(Speaking of entertainers, I can’t abide most reality shows, particularly the kind that might be called “Famous for Being Famous” (I’m looking at you, Kardashians) or “Rich People Behaving Badly” (I’m looking at you, Real Housewives). I do like the ones where fairly normal people actually make or do something like cooking or baking, designing clothes, forging knives, and so on. I can’t say whether they technically serve society, but at least they’re creative. But I digress again.)

But what (to get back to my much-neglected point) about sanitation and maintenance workers? Without them, our streets would be awash in litter and worse. Our offices would be grubby and perhaps disease-ridden. Our school corridors would be besmirched by vomit. I think taking care of all these problems serves society in a very real way. (And there are never reality shows featuring them. Probably something to do with the vomit. But I digress some more.)

I’ll admit that poker players don’t do anything to serve society, but I think we have a limited view of those who do. Public servants are held up as examples, and they should be. But farmers don’t get mentioned, and they feed us all. Train engineers and truck drivers serve society by delivering that food, as we learned during the pandemic. Psychiatrists and therapists serve members of the public who have mental illnesses. Meteorologists serve society when storms happen. Anyone from architects to bus drivers, yoga instructors to zookeepers. Even burger flippers and pizza delivery people serve society or at least individual members of it.

Let’s expand our definitions of who serves society. There are a lot of people who don’t get recognition and should.