What is the Rotary Spirit? This is the somewhat rhetorical question posed by PP Christie in his membership development article this week. I have followed in silence the many interesting points of view put forward by our many friends and have enjoyed this renewed spirit of dialogue and conversation. Many great accomplishments were preceded by conversations of this nature. One founded on profound love for an enterprise and purpose. In our case the Rotary Spirit is pervasive of every aspect of this dialogue. It is the spirit of fellowship through service.
Now more than ever, we have to revive this spirit and love for our wonderful cause – The Rotary cause. We live in challenging times, this much is clear what the many opinions expressed. But it is in challenging times that those few committed to the cause bear a greater burden for the many. To share the message of Rotary and to enthuse others with it. As Goethe once said, “The artist alone sees spirits. But after he has told of their appearing to him, everybody sees them.“
My friends, there is only one way to build our membership – by sharing Rotary with everyone and making Rotary membership a joy. Rotarians must share their sense of pride in being a Rotarian and the joy they feel by serving the community and by the fellowship they enjoy.
The problem sometimes in that we are so caught up with the ups and downs of our own lives that we are unable to see the big picture. We allow personal feelings and ego to obscure the true nature of our enterprise and we lose sight of the greatness that is within our grasp. We use many subterfuges to disguise our lack of commitment and fevour.
“We want quality members! It is quality and not quantity that matters”, one staunch and truly retired Rotarian said to me. What I mean by truly retired, is that he has not only retired from employment, but from life generally. The Rotary meeting is his last bastion of self important indulgence – many Rotarians pander to his much deflated ego not out of respect but pity. Having lost his sense of professional accomplishment in life, he has turned the Rotary club into the hierachical structure that once served to bolster his ego and is adamant to hold on to that inefficacious belief that he is an important person. Sad thing is that he has forgotten what really made him important. It was not his vocation, nor his Datukship, nor the money he had. Rather, it was the fact that he was a good son and brother, a devoted husband, a loving father and more important than all of that, a servant to the community. It was the fact that he served his community selflessly in the true spirit of SERVICE ABOVE SELF. It was his many many services as a Rotarian that made him important. Rotary gave his life QUALITY. He grew as a person as a Rotarian and to whatever extent he served Rotary, Rotary served him too. That is probably how he became possessed of the Rotary SPIRIT.
Now in the autumn of his life, he has forgotten his journey and by his pronouncement, he is preventing others from reaping the rich joys of being a Rotarian – of having the chance to discover and feel the Rotary spirit. In more than 20 years as a Rotarian, I have had the pleasure and luxury of sharing the company and fellowship of many Rotarians. I can tell you this without equivocation, Rotarians come in all shapes and sizes, from all walks of life, having many different social and cultural backgrounds BUT they all are driven by this thing called the Rotary spirit. It is a self reflective attitude that comes from what is best in all of us that says – we want to make a better world. We want to heal the world of all of its ills. A spirit that will not be defeated by poverty and inhumanity. That will strive and not yeild no matter what the difficulty and drive us to do what we can, so long as we can. Till the very end. It is this spirit and our love for our fellow human beings that make us important people – NOTHING ELSE. A good man draws a small circle and protects everyone in that circle – his children and his immediate family. A great man draws a bigger circle and protects not only his family but the people in his community. A Rotarian draws an infinitely larger circle and commits himself/herself to building communities and bridging continents – that’s the level of our commitment – or that should be the level of our commitment. Just think this – after this life, WHAT?
What makes us important is intangible and not within the realm of material things. Don’t be fooled into thinking otherwise. We do not need important people in Rotary – we need people who believe and are committed to doing the important things.
Allow me to end with this poem.
What do we love about Rotary;
Does our delight reside in things?
Or are the feelings in our hearts
The real gift that Rotary brings.
In showing that we care and love,
And by serving humanity, too,
That Rotarians bring everyone joy
Special people, that’s me and you.
