To Serve is to Rule

I did a little School service today... sort of. Another parent recruited me to help move some stuff with her. She said she wanted four men to help with lifting and possibly disassembling something and then re-assembling it. I said sure but I had to admit both that I am not handy and that I don't drive.

Today I felt kind of excited because we I was getting a ride to an unknown location. For all I knew we were going to rob a house. Of course we weren't, we were just taking things that people didn't want but at first there was that sort of excitement. Then I thought I should use that in a story. A group of moms who went around, maybe with babies in tow, and robbed like something more interesting than houses. Jewelry stores or whatever. No something less obvious. Because if you think about it, it's a pretty good cover.

Oh yeah it ended up being all moms, but the mom with the truck, who I knew from school and playgroup and community, was awesome at loading stuff and ratchet tying things and all this stuff, way better than any guys I know and have seen do stuff like that. I may have friends that I haven't seen in action but she is the best that I have seen.

At one point one of the other moms wanted to make a suggestion of perhaps how to do it better. "Let's just see what she wants to do." because it was pretty obvious who was the leader and the most skilled at that type of thing. She was several levels above us at this. More then ten levels even. I don't have to be good at everything, but it is important to recognize who is good at certain stuff and defer to their expertise.

Super mom also gave me a plastic sword for Shao.

It was fun, but I think I will avoid such activities as much as possible in the future. There was a lot of standing around and thinking and wondering where stuff would go. I remember helping Kwong Kow move across the street and I ended up being the leader of that endeavor while I was there. "Move like we're stealing it." Otherwise nothing gets done.

But this was not bad at all. But again, I will avoid from now on I think. I felt like I was sort of an extra wheel at times.

Plus when we actually brought the stuff to the school there was almost some resistance about accepting stuff, mostly because bureaucracy that sort of thing.

But in all the examples of my life when I helped out, really helped someone in need, even if they were asking, in the end they hated me for it. That's why I was not surprised by any resistance because someone coming into help you, often feels like someone coming in to conquer you.

Now that's not what "To serve is to rule" means (at least that's not how it was described at my High school where it was the school motto.) But I have noticed that when I really tried to help and stick my neck out for someone, they start blaming me for their problems, as if I am a Tyrant to overthrow.  

Now doing stuff for your school is great. But ultimately school's , admins, offices, don't like their world invaded, whether you come bearing gifts or not. In fact they automatically become suspicious and often it means they have to do more work than they would have had to. And then they don't get anything out of it personally.

In other words, to serving is often more like the negative side of ruling than you think.

That's why the most important thing is to try and take care of yourself first. If by doing something for yourself, you happen to help someone else or you trade or barter, that's actually better. Because some serving with nothing in return is often suspected, resented, and despised even if they truly are just trying to make the world better.

Now because I was just helping someone else help, I didn't really get that feeling but I noticed the mom that organized it was feeling it a little. For me, today was less about service and more about just helping out.