There's an apparent paradox here. Most of the greatest joys in life come from being able to use the gifts you've been give to serve people you care about.
Nobody likes being treated as a servant.
There's an apparent paradox here. Most of the greatest joys in life come from being able to use the gifts you've been give to serve people you care about.
Nobody likes being treated as a servant.
1 comment:
There's a fantastic scene in Lawrence of Arabia in which Lawrence confronts Auda Abu Tayi on the question of whether or not he, Auda, is a servant. Auda is incensed at the suggestion that he serves the Turks; Lawrence points out that the Turks pay him, and 'it is the servant who takes money.'
Auda responds with a magnificient speech against the idea that he is a servant, supported euphorically by his tribe, until Lawrence is made to confess that Auda does not serve. Yet the crux of the argument Auda makes is that, although the Turks pay him "a golden treasure, I am poor: For I am a river to my people!"
In other words, he is not a servant of the Turks because he is a servant of his people, and that turns what might have been servile behavior into lordly and worthy behavior.
Lawrence goes on to subtly point out that Auda is deceiving everyone about how much he is paid, and is pocketing some of the proceeds, thus clarifying that Auda is also serving himself. It is this road -- self interest -- that he eventually uses to get Auda to join him in the raid on Aqaba; but the speech, and its ideal, addresses the paradox you raise. Auda demands not to be treated as a servant, oddly enough precisely on the ground that he provides an invaluable service to his people. They, receipients of his service, are only too happy to agree. The Turks, who were paying the bill, end up being the losers.
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