The Confirmation bias in translation
I admire translators. Why?
Because those that have the gift to help others understand an unknown language have been the ones who’ve genuinely impacted my personal, emotional, business, mental and spiritual development.
There’s nothing more human than connection. Friction often comes at the cost of language, but now at the age of 7 (yes, if you’re not there yet, life truly begins at 40), I cannot possibly learn the languages I need to connect with people the way I want.
And what way would that be?
By serving.
So, I deep-dived into what it means “to serve”.
Everything that I read, I absorbed, but (with honour for honesty) for the absorption process, the true “sinking in” feeling came when I saw the words through my confirmation bias lens because, throughout my life, personal and business, I have been in “flow”, and at “whole” when I’ve served.
The start of my search showed the meanings for “service” dating back to Old French and Middle English. Still, with the confirmation bias lenses firmly on, the search continued, and it took me to the etymology, which was found to be way back 500 BC to Ancient Etruria. The Etruscan meaning of “Serve” was “watch over and protect”.
This influenced the Romans, and “serve” was manifested through “Servus”, meaning Slave, Servant.
So what do I choose?
I’m a dad. I’ve run (what started as my glorified hobby) my business since 2008, and I am “service-based”. I know no different but to serve, so I go with the Etruria meaning.
Fast forward, and something extraordinary surfaced as the Pandemic took hold. Stoicism.
I’ve done more digging, and there’s no denial I have Ancient Greek ancestry, which dates back 2000 years (Stoics & Jesus).
Translations have been found, through the stoics (Latin and Ancient Greek), that the definition of being a “good human” is to be of service.
My whole purpose, now on my second mountain, is to leave evidence for my Twin boys that they can say, “now I get dad what he meant by being a good human” (looking at what I’ve left behind on these digital platforms), “oh, that’s what a journey looks like to be of service.”
I’m positioning myself as “The Ultimate Wellness Coach”; ultimately, my curiosity lies in the unknown. The unknown for me is the known for you, so the question I ask you to help me know what I don’t know is what the definition of service means to you?
