Without question, the pandemic years with their numerous local, national and international horrors, tragedies and injustices have taken a toll on us. An extraordinary time – and we are surviving it individually and collectively in many ways because of the on-going ordinary.

Not enough, but there has been some acknowledgment of many unsung heroes and their dedication and sacrifice. We learned incontrovertibly that we and our society depend on many: garbage collectors, truckers, delivery people (food, pharmacy, etc.), manufacturers, postal workers (USPS, FedEx, UPS), nurses, doctors, hospital staff, pharmacists and staff, teachers, teachers, aides, veterinarians, dental hygienists, custodians, taxi drivers, those who repair our cars, building elevators, refrigerators, supermarket stockers and check out staff… the list is much longer, of course, and it also includes us as part of the broader mental health profession.

I write this note, however, to recognize a particular subgroup of people who made our psychoanalytic worlds continue to spin along their axis even though, at first, the globe came to a screeching halt. I refer to the many analysts at CIPS and all of its member societies who volunteer their time to make our psychoanalytic societies and organizations not survive but also, in some ways, continue to flourish.

These are our presidents, vice presidents, treasurers, secretaries, board members, deans, committee heads and members, clinic supervisors – to name a few –all of whom kept thinking, feeling and planning about programming, protocols, online platforms, budgets, privacy, how remote impacted our sense of community, training, supervision, training analysis and… And these many volunteers did all of these ordinary and important things in real-time as each of them, like each of us, had to navigate the pandemic in their own lives, minds and hearts, and practices.

Our field was created against the odds and is sustained by a continuous history of volunteerism and the profound belief in the healing effects of our modality. Our psychoanalytic societies and organizations succeed because of the time, thought and care these many volunteers have given over the course of psychoanalytic history, from its inception to current time and, of course, including these frightening and hugely upending past few years.

As Thomas Friedman wrote in a recent New York Times opinion piece: “The pervasive claim that ‘I have my rights’ but ‘I don’t have responsibilities’ is unraveling our country today.”  The seemingly indefatigable volunteers in our societies, in CIPS, in NAPsaC and in the IPA embody the values that we need to keep alive and enthusiastically cultivate in our own lives and in our broader culture: the necessity of service, of giving back, of integrity, of kindness and compassion, and of living the simple truth that our individual and societal health and well-being depends on us caring for the other. Being of meaningful service is one way to actualize these values.

I will go out on the tiniest of limbs, and write on behalf of all of us at all of our societies: We thank you—past and present— for your service and for leading by admirable example.