“I don’t like honors. I appreciate it for the work that I did and for the people who appreciate it. And I notice other physicists use my work. I don’t need anything else. I don’t think there’s any sense to anything else. I don’t see that it makes any point that someone in the Swedish Academy decides that this work is noble enough to receive a prize. I’ve already got the prize. The prize is the pleasure of finding a thing out, the kick in a discovery, the observation of it, that other people use it. Those are the real things. The honors are unreal to me. I don’t believe in honors. It bothers me. Honors bother me. Honors as epaulettes. Honors as uniforms. My papa brought me up this way. I can’t stand it. It hurts me.
When I was in high school, one of the first honors I got was to be a member of the Arista, which is a group of kids who got good grades…Everybody wanted to be a member of the Arista. And when I got into the Arista, I discovered that what they did in their meetings was to sit around and to discuss who else was worthy to join this wonderful group that we are…So, we sat around and discussed who would get to be allowed into this Arista. This kind of thing bothers me for whatever psychological reason I don’t understand myself. Honors have, from that day to this, always bothered me. I had trouble when I became a member of the National Academy of Science, and I had ultimately to resign because there was another organization, most of whose time was spent in choosing who was illustrious enough to be allowed to join…” – Richard P. Feynman
Having won a few honors myself, I think I understand Dr. Feynman’s point. It was always the work, the improvement, the results of my efforts, that motivated me, not someone else’s approval. Certainly, a pat on the back, especially from a parent or a good friend, is always welcome. A trophy or medal is strictly optional. And an exclusive club cannot add to what you already know about yourself.
Yet some people live and die for awards. Feynman won the Nobel Prize in Physics. He didn’t lobby for it or revel in it and when all was said and done it made him uncomfortable. He called the Prize “a pain in the…” The honor was far less important than the work he did. How different from a president who can be charmed or even bribed by trophies and medals. It seems to me there’s something wrong when a person believes he must be praised and honored all the time.
Like Feynman’s papa and my own, Aristotle warned about being too interested in honors. Fame, like youth, is fleeting. Aristotle realized that being a prize cow might bring contentment for a while, but in the end a human being needs to act “in accordance with virtue.” The real honor is in what one does, not what one gets out of it. I question whether anyone who believes he must promote himself to win an award is truly worthy of that award.
Perhaps the most disturbing point is that some people crave exclusivity. They try to gain honor by keeping people out. C.S. Lewis wrote about the desire to be part of “the inner ring.” Trying to be part of an exclusive in-group is like peeling an onion. When you eliminate all the unworthy by removing all the layers, you end up with a core of nothing. The search for ever higher honor ends, not with those who are worthy, but with emptiness.
This is a great danger of religion as well. It’s sad to say that a substantial number of Christians are concerned with who to keep out – “Not those people. They’re evil. Socialists! Democrats! Traitors! Sinners! They use pronouns. They’re the wrong color. They don’t believe the right things. They’ll ruin everything.” Whenever a religion reduces itself to an exclusive club, we should question its validity.
The Master said, “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavily burdened, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn from Me. For I am meek and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” [Matthew 11:28-29] There is a vast difference between “all you who labor,” which means everyone, and “not those people.” “For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” [Romans 3:23]
We all can learn from Dr. Feynman. We should feel honored if others are able to build on our work. And we should realize that the highest honor does not come from aggrandizing ourselves, but from improving the lives of others.
MurrayWorks 