| synonyms: | job, task, chore, assignment, commission, mission, function, charge,part,
place, role, concern, requirement, responsibility, obligation;
"it was his duty to attend the king"
I was listening to Jane Eyre on the radio today - the dramatic bit where Mr Rochester reveals the existence of his mad wife to Jane on their supposed-to-be-wedding day. His moving explanation of how he was duped into marrying someone who turned out to have inherited insanity and his decision to look after her rather than shut her away in an institution led me to think about duty.
As the Queen turns 90 this year Im sure it is a word we are going to hear bandied about quite a bit in 2016. She has served us well over the past sixty odd years as our monarch, putting her own agenda to one side as she has traipsed round the country and the world being an ambassador for the UK, smiling and laughing with all and sundry, shaking billions of hands , walking thousands of miles in high heels. One of the more memorable moments of her reign has to be the handshake with Martin
McGuinness - Deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland and ex officio of the IRA which heartlessly blew up the Queens cousin and several other people who were on holiday in Sligo in 1979. I'm sure she didnt have to shake his hand. She probably didnt really want to. But as Queen Im sure she saw it as her duty to do whatever it took to progress the cause of peace. And that one gesture had a HUGE impact here in Ireland.
I dont think its terribly fashionable any more to talk or even think about duty. It's a word which has connotations of onerous, heavy going, difficult slog. And in this age of ' all about me' and self determining egalitarianism the notion of serving others and self sacrifice doesnt sit easy.
responsibility, obligation, commitment, obedience, allegiance, loyalty,faithfulness,
fidelity, respect, deference, reverence, homage These are all somewhat difficult words. We find these characteristics quite hard to embrace and develop because they involve putting someone or something else first. And we are inherently selfish beings. Well , I am. I suppose I can't speak for you :)
And yet when we see these qualities in someone else we cant help but deeply admire them. We admire both the Queen and Martin McGuinness for setting aside their deeply held views, monarch v republic, in favour of their jointly held responsibility, commitment, allegiance to the ways of peace building and conflict resolution. We applaud our doctors and nurses, paramedics, police and fire officers for going above and beyond time after time, not because they are paid to, but because of a deeply held sense of responsibility and allegiance to the public. We gasp in awe at the couples who have been married for sixty and seventy years . Respect and loyalty and faithfulness winning out over selfishness.
In the Bible we are called to honour our mothers and fathers and to look after the orphans and the widows. We have a duty to God and to each other to care, respect, serve and defer to each other. Not only will society be a better place if we do but we will be more the people we were meant to be - more like Jesus.
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