To Serve

The word samurai literally means "to serve".  For the historical samurai this was service to a feudal lord.  For the modern person it could  be any variety of things or people.  We could find ourselves in service to the public, to our families, to our friends, to gods or goddesses, to our employers, and to ourselves.  All of us will serve in some capacity or function in our lives.  In order to serve our best we must try and seek out the various relationships between the people and functions we serve, better yet once we identify those relationships we need to understand them.  For example I'm in service to my employer, because I need money in order to be in service to my wife i.e. I need money to pay the bills and support my family.  That is a simple example no doubt.  Still there is more to it.  I try to serve my employer the best I can in hopes of obtaining a raise or a promotion which cycles back to the fact that I have a family to support and more money would help that cause.  Even more so in the course of my job I am in service to the public order.  I chose this line of work (public safety), because I enjoy being in the service of others.  It is a cycle really.  One service impacts another.  I realize this is really nothing new to many of you and you might be thinking where I'm going with this and what I'm getting at is the "service" aspect.  Many of us just get up and do what needs to be in order to survive.  I don't think the goal is to just survive, but to try and thrive.  We should get up each morning and be eager to serve.  What is wisdom, talent, or ability without a driving purpose behind it?  Find that purpose, that passion, and go out there and lay it all on the line.

"For a warrior there is nothing other than thinking of his master." - Hagakure.

Brandt