Recently, after a few good games of squash, I was in the university sports center, absentmindedly glancing at a notice board. A recruiting poster for one of the teams read, "Don't be average, be the best!"
The sign echoes a much-repeated mantra of our culture that none of us should settle for average; that we all have the ability to be better than the others—to be number one. I find it disturbing.
Of course, I am all for doing one's best. But not at the expense of others. My dad's refrain, when I was growing up, was different. He would say, "Do your best son. That's all you can do." My best might be average, or less than average. I can't remember being "the best" at anything. But, that doesn't bother me. I followed dad's advice. If I fail to do my best, I am only letting myself down.
"Don't be average, be the best!" is an impossibly cruel mantra for most of us. "Do your best!" is a demanding, but realizable goal. I think that's why in my 20s I took up running. I wasn't trying to beat others to get into a team. I was simply doing my best.
"Don't be average, be the best!" has a worrying underlying rationale. Social theorists have pointed out a trend in our culture from a general "other-regardingness" to a "self-regardingness." The change is post Word War Two and is noticeable, along a spectrum of variables, from the mid-1950s. It's not to say that before then all was rosy in the garden. It is to say that we have become more self-centered and less mindful of the needs of others than before.
The apostle said, "Don’t be selfish; don’t try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves. Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too."
The apostle came to this conclusion by meditating on the life of Jesus.
Jesus is one of the world's exemplars of the "other-regarding" life.
The other-regarding life is as counter-cultural now as it has ever been. It is a demanding life. It can be a quite exhausting life! But it is life to aspire to. It is a Good life.
Perhaps one day I will be looking absentmindedly at a notice board and will see a recruiting poster announcing in large letters, "Think of others as better than yourself!" I wonder what team that would be!
+Ab. Andy
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
The sign echoes a much-repeated mantra of our culture that none of us should settle for average; that we all have the ability to be better than the others—to be number one. I find it disturbing.
Of course, I am all for doing one's best. But not at the expense of others. My dad's refrain, when I was growing up, was different. He would say, "Do your best son. That's all you can do." My best might be average, or less than average. I can't remember being "the best" at anything. But, that doesn't bother me. I followed dad's advice. If I fail to do my best, I am only letting myself down. "Don't be average, be the best!" is an impossibly cruel mantra for most of us. "Do your best!" is a demanding, but realizable goal. I think that's why in my 20s I took up running. I wasn't trying to beat others to get into a team. I was simply doing my best.
"Don't be average, be the best!" has a worrying underlying rationale. Social theorists have pointed out a trend in our culture from a general "other-regardingness" to a "self-regardingness." The change is post Word War Two and is noticeable, along a spectrum of variables, from the mid-1950s. It's not to say that before then all was rosy in the garden. It is to say that we have become more self-centered and less mindful of the needs of others than before.
The apostle said, "Don’t be selfish; don’t try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves. Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too."
The apostle came to this conclusion by meditating on the life of Jesus.
Jesus is one of the world's exemplars of the "other-regarding" life.
The other-regarding life is as counter-cultural now as it has ever been. It is a demanding life. It can be a quite exhausting life! But it is life to aspire to. It is a Good life.
Perhaps one day I will be looking absentmindedly at a notice board and will see a recruiting poster announcing in large letters, "Think of others as better than yourself!" I wonder what team that would be!
+Ab. Andy
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad