The odd thing is that I’ve always thought of myself as having quite a strong sense of duty, and yet it occurs to me that I’ve rarely felt dutiful towards the things we’re supposed to feel dutiful towards – things like God, parents, king and country... Off the top of my head, my sense of duty falls into three categories:
Duty towards things I enter voluntarily. This would include personal relationships, employment (although only up to a point) and membership of organisations like the Tooting Popular Front or the armed forces. I don’t believe there is any obligation of duty on conscripts.
Duty towards things for which I am responsible. The biggest example of this would be children. I’ve said somewhere else in this blog that I believe parents have a duty to their offspring, but not vice versa. My parents were responsible for me being here. I wasn’t responsible for their presence in my life.
Duty placed upon me by accident of circumstance. When my mother died, I undertook the whole clearance of her house, estate and effects on my own. I didn’t do it out of duty to her, but because the job had to be done and I was the right person in the right place at the right time. It was also why I willingly helped my elderly neighbour when he needed it (he died today, by the way.) Life sometimes puts obligations in our path, and I’m cursed with a belief that to ignore them is a sign of weakness or selfishness.
So there you have it: Jeffrey on Duty. Was that all really boring?
One final thing, though. I never pay homage to superiors.
Oh, by the way, my latest Google search term picks up on my post about the good ol’ boys. It reads JJ Beazley is a good ol’ boil. Mm, not bad.
2 comments:
I put duty in the same classification of using the word "should" or "have to." All of these imply these horrible rigorous pressures that are "supposed" to be acted upon. Like family obligations, blecch! You and I are such rebels, Jeff ;)
This is why I say that my sense of duty is largely restricted to things for which I'm responsible, Wendy, like bringing a child into the world or joining an organisation. So, if I knock something over, I see it as my duty to pick it up again. Those 'duties' that life place in our way have to be taken one by one on their merits, I think.
If I take the question out to the ultimate extent of my spiritual views, however, I believe that our only ultimate duty is to ourselves. But that's a difficult one to fit into a this-life context.
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