Lesson 1: Wearing Crowns on Your Hands

Life is a dish best served, not waited on.

Steve Dublancia in his New York Times Bestselling book, Waiter Rant, knows exactly what this means. Steve is a waiter and is quick to convey just how painstaking and brutal the service industry is in his weekly blog, Waiter Rant. His life chronicles a series of long and arduous day with unruly and socially unacceptable behaviors enacted by ungrateful, cynical, selfish customers. Think about every waiter you've stiffed in the past, jeered at, mocked at, and complained about. Their daily routine consists of taking the garbage and service delicacies and do it with a smile.

It's the equivalent of being pummeled by roadies and then laughing about it.

Every day.

The service industry is a difficult and trying business to say the least. The level of extravagance and quality that uncaring, undeserving, ungrateful people expect from their peon underlings rises with the population. This world is filled with people who demand good service and fewer people who actually serve. This is unfortunate seeing that the thrill of living it not lived in the gluttonous feastings of quality service, but in the service itself.

It's easy to forget who has what title these days. We've created an overabundance of spectacular names that what we're left with is a sea of people with their own claim to fame. And since everybody is "original," then who's really left to stand out except the ones with no title at all?

Like the story of the princess who tried to win the affection of the kingdom. She lost her title to another princess and as the sash and crown was handed to a different successor. The other princess gracefully accepted her kingdom's rejection and, moving to the successor with tears of disappointment in her eyes, tied the bows in the sash and pinned the glimmering crown in the hair of the new princess. The kingdom below watched her carry the crown to her competitor and were in awe of her sincerity. Their allegiance was already pledged to another, but their hearts were forever wooed by the princess who wore her crown in her hands, not on her head.

No great act can be accomplished from a pedestal, which is why humility is the foundation of honest living. Helen Nielsen once said, "Humility is like underwear, essential, but indecent if it shows." It is the ultimate atribute a person can obtain. Greatness is won perserved not through force, but through delicate, meek action.

Service is an overlooked, unconsidered aspect of daily lives. People don't pay attention to people who serve just like a table at a restaurant hardly remembers their waiter's name, let alone give notice to the waiter's vital proximity to the table's personal conversation. Servers witness people with their guard down and hearts wide open. Parts of life are evident in places and ways never before imagined as a server does their duty. Life and it's complexities are better seen through the looking glass of meek courtesy.

Life is best seen when served, not waited on.

"To become truly great, one must stand with people, not above them." - Charles de Montesquleu