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Getting What We Deserve
I’ve been on easy street all my life, and I have never felt I deserved it. But the other day, I examined the word “deserving.” I looked it up. (Side note: This is a fascinating practice. Look up words you think you know.)
Deserve: DE-SERVE. The prefix “de” often means “undo” or “do the opposite of.” As in, Deactivate, dethrone, etc. And “serve” means “to render habitual obeisance to, or to give aid, or to be a slave to.” So the word “deserve” could mean ‘to no longer be a slave to.’ And if I say, “I deserve this,” I could be saying I DE-SERVE it. I stop my habitual obeisance to it. I’m no longer a slave to it. This has a very different ring to it than “I have it coming to me,” or “You owe me.” To deserve something is to stop being a slave to it.
Think about what this could mean when you next use the word. Say, “I deserve this delicious dessert,” and see it through the lens of: I’m no longer a slave to this delicious dessert.” Doesn’t that open the window and let some fresh air blow through the word ‘deserve?’
But there’s another important consideration with this word: If I say, “I deserve all the good things that have happened to me,” let’s be clear, I’m not bragging that I earned them. If I could earn good fortune (or ill), it would…
