Would you like to be a king (or queen)?
Imagine a world full of doctors. Visualize a hospital in a world made
of doctors. All the patients would also be qualified physicians,
specialists in this or that, surgeons and such. There would be no nurses
or attendants. Doctor would have double up as nurse, attendant,
ambulance-driver, lab technician, receptionist, record-keeper, cashier,
pharmacist, electrician, mason, cook, cleaner, plumber etc. etc.
And it is not just about hospitals and attending to the sick. We will
have doctor-presidents, doctor-ministers, doctor-mayors,
doctor-engineers, doctor-accountants, doctor-teachers, doctor-bakers,
doctor-journalists, doctor-administrators, doctor-jailors, doctor-prison
guards, doctor-actors, doctor-singers, doctor-teachers, doctor-bums and
doctor-children. Infants would come out of their doctor-mothers’ wombs
carrying an MBBS and who knows, perhaps even with a stethoscope.
Professional title
They would grow up eating food produced by doctor-farmers and sold by
doctor-vendors. They would marry other doctors, in ceremonies presided
over by doctor-marriage-registrars and doctor-kapuwas. When they die,
their corpses would be dressed up by doctor-undertakers, the paansukoola
presided over by doctor-bikkhus and buried or cremated by doctor
gravediggers or crematorium-keepers.
You can replace ‘doctor’ with any other professional title, skilled
or unskilled, with or without certification and end up with a world that
is as unpalatable and untenable as what I’ve described above. The world
is not made like this. Thankfully!
An occupational hierarchy in terms of preference can be constructed,
this is true, but we all know that not everyone wants to be a doctor.
Still, if the choice was doctor or coolly I think most would pick the
former. Few would spurn riches. Few would say no to power. Not many
would decline the crown if offered, what do you think?
Education system
I was thinking of Victor Ratnayake’s endearing and hopeful ditty Api
Okkoma Rajawaru (We are all of us kings) recently. It is not impossible,
I believe. I mean, it is easy for everyone to be ‘king’ and for a king-ful
society to be tenable compared to a doctor-world. The important thing to
remember is that ‘king’ is less title than metaphor. As metaphor you can
be king of any number of territories, geographical, professional and
personal. You can be your own king, the king of the household, the king
of the village. You can be queen of a professional association,
corporate entity or a court of law. The nice thing about ‘king’ or
kingdom (if you will) is that crown is as conferred as it is self-made
and worn, and not just in a self-delusional manner.
The
problem is that when someone says ‘king’ we immediately picture an
all-powerful man, sitting on a throne, passing judgment. When we hear
the word ‘leader’ we associate the title with power, an apex position in
some structured hierarchy and not as ‘person achieving excellence of one
kind or another’. So when we think of ‘leadership training’, it is more
about training to become a person who leads others, who gives orders,
makes plans, executes, hires/fires, etc., and not about being the best
we can be.
Our education system does devote much effort to training people to be
leaders or to help children acquire leadership qualities. There’s one
thing missing. They are not taught that being a leader does not mean you
should not allow yourself to be led.
The king of tennis is not necessarily the king of filling tax forms.
The king of lawyers is not necessarily able to dress a simple wound. The
queen of chess might not know how to cook. The king of the word might
have fingers too twister to even play the arpeggio on a keyboard.
It is about learning which territories one can ‘rule’ best and of
course the ‘how’ of it all. It is about learning humility too; of
acknowledging that being great or good in something doesn’t make you
expert on all things. It is also about learning that kingdom and
kinghood are not synonymous with ‘happiness’ or contentment, that a
crown is not guarantor of joy and peace. It is about figuring out what
we can do best, what would sustain our interest over a relatively long
period of time.
Mmultiple roles
Not everyone can be king, either in a chosen field or in a political
territory. Countries have kings, yes. They also purohitha bamunas (Chief
Advisors), court jesters, architects, engineers, farmers, teachers,
fathers, mothers and children.
We play multiple roles. Our roles are sometimes assigned to us; often
with little reference to proven skill or training.
It is rarely that the right person gets the right job. Crowns are
tossed around and the person who grabs them are not necessarily the best
person for the relevant job. There is no point in lamenting that which
one cannot change. We can consider for a moment the ata lo dahama, the
vicissitudes of life and try to treat them with equanimity. That’s one
way of acquiring wisdom, divesting ourselves of ignorance, doubt, fear
and the burden of ego. This way we acquire new eyes, see territories we
did not know existed and crowns too, those that truly fit our heads and
hearts and are ‘tailor-made’ to our skills, attitudes, energies, goals
and relevant humilities.
Do you think you are a king? Think again. Do you think you are not?
Think again! We are all kings and citizens; we are all mothers, fathers
and children. Some are crowned kings and some not. All kings. All
citizens. We can all be tall, as long as we know how short we can be and
indeed are.
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