Anyone who has ever played a game with me knows how much I love to win. I will fight to the very end, form alliances, beg for rematches, let out a victory cry for every point scored … just like most, I love the feeling of winning. That sense of accomplishment, a job well done, an ego-boosting affirmation of your skill/intelligence/strength.
But lately, I’ve been noticing and admiring the people who are happy to be second. Those behind-the-scenes people who get stuff done, stick around to clean up after the big event, wear the same smile whether the points are going their way or not, the people who sacrifice their own goals and dreams or put them on hold to support something bigger and make sure it happens.
Maybe it really is about running well, finishing well; doing life honourably rather than gloriously. The thought causes me conflicting emotions. It doesn’t add up with Western life philosophy, or striving and struggling to make the big money, get to the top of the ladder and smile down at the others on the bottom rungs. Who wants to be the person pushing someone else up over the last lip of the mountain instead of driving the stake in yourself?
Still – where has our me-first, i-win-you-lose approach to life gotten us so far? Nowhere beautiful.
Any thriving, loving community takes people who are ok with staying out of the limelight, people who truly put others first – in order that they can, for the good of another, their souls, us all…
Be Second.
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