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Personal Interest

Is "Service Above Self" Unconditional?

by Florence Hui
Wednesday, September 14, 2005. 07:39PM
1,422 Views 7 Comments

Just as my perception of true love and friendship, "Service" in the context of "Service Above Self" is unconditional. If I love you or want to make friends with you, it is because you are you, and not because of your status, what you've been or what you can be. The object of "Service" is "To Serve" in the Rotary world. Anything else would just be bonus.

Recently my belief has been kept being challenged -

(1) A Rotaractor told me that a member of a Rotary Club in their District Rotaract Committee said it was a "must" for them to win another international award this year, further to the success of the last District project.

(2) Another Rotaractor was frustrated in organising an international event. Members of the organising committee did everything on conditions. Political parties are involved to promote this event as a good opportunity to upgrade the political status of their beloved country around the globe.

(3) An expatriate Rotarian was asked two questions by almost everyone he met at a district function in Hong Kong: "What do you do?" and "Where do you live?" He replied by asking "How about you?" One of them grinned and said "I live in Mid-Levels." This expatriate Rotarian asked us during a general meeting "I've lived in Macau for 10 years. People here have no interest to know these. Why are those in Hong Kong so keen to know the answers?"

Based on my common sense: Rotarians/Rotaractors are those who have something to say whereas members of Rotary/ Rotaract Clubs are those who just want to say something. According to Albert Einstein, "In order to form an immaculate member of a flock of sheep one must, above all, be a sheep." What if it is a black sheep?

For Deng Xiao Peng, "It doesn't matter whether the cat is black or white as long as it catches mice." Let us say we all want to catch the same mouse. Some of us believe we can catch it together while others strive to be the first to catch it. Result-oriented catchers begin to fight with each other. In the end, we don't even know where the mouse is. Worse, we forget what a mouse looks like.

"True love, friendship and Service is unconditional" said my inner-child. We don't need another SARS outbreak to learn what is unconditional, do we?

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Comments

 7 shown
Thursday, April 27, 2006. 03:36AM by Floris den Hartog
Right you are
Friday, February 3, 2006. 06:53AM by Calum Thomson
Yes, there is a difference between being a 'member' of a Rotary/Rotaract Club and being a Rotarian
Monday, October 24, 2005. 06:54AM by Rajesh Bajracharya
"Let us say we all want to catch the same mouse. Some of us believe we can catch it together while others strive to be the first to catch it. Result-oriented catchers begin to fight with each other. In the end, we don't even know where the mouse is. Worse, we forget what a mouse looks like." Like always, you hit the right thing at right time...But I pray and wish you inspirations to keep making the difference instead of hints of depressions on your way to "Service Above Self". Someday soon, all the "class people" would be a minority group against the others who strive to SERVE and reward themselves with the smiling faces of changes instead of doubts. Hats off to you again for mentioning and being a Rotarian with Rotaract heart!
Sunday, September 18, 2005. 10:43AM by Jack Selway
God Bless you for speaking out on this important topic.
Thursday, September 15, 2005. 07:34PM by Florence Hui
Thanks, Marc & Geof. In Hong Kong, we could know how RICH the people is by asking where he lives. Mid Levels mentioned above is one of the districts for upper class. To me this people are paractical. They will decide if they want to talk to you by asking 2 questions: WHERE DO YOU LIVE? WHAT DO YOU DO? If I don't give model answers, they move on to talk to other people. Both Hong Kong and Macau have been colonies. Macanese is under the influence of Portugal and Hong Kong is under that of United Kingdom
Thursday, September 15, 2005. 12:13PM by Geof Lambert
I was going to write very similar to the end of Marc's comments. He beat me too it. It does sound a lot like east coast/west coast USA. And I think you could probably say the say the same about Northern Europe and Southern Europe to some degree. I am from east coast USA but moved to west coast in my early 20's. I agree, east coast is very: Where did you go to school? What do you do? There is saying: New Yorkers live to work. Californians work to live. Neither is "right or wrong" necessarily, it is just the way things have evolved over time.
Thursday, September 15, 2005. 11:58AM by Marc Lefton
The key to being service above self is to surround yourself with similar types of people who are not concerned with status and awards. I work in advertising and there are 39 different awards shows. Whenever someone tells me "I won an award" I ask "who judged the award?" That usually disarms them so they realize that it's not the award but whether or not they provided a valuable service. When you're surrounded by people who have questionable motivations it becomes difficult to stay motivated without questioning it yourself. Examine your relationships with those around you and try to improve the quality of the people to those who inspire you! re: your comment about the ex-patriate, in the US I discovered that New Yorkers like me are much more curious about people's ethnic backgrounds than in California which is more mixed and homogenized. People from California are often taken aback at the directness of some New Yorkers who say "What are you?"