One of my favorite quotes goes something like this: “Be not forgetful to entertain strangers; for thereby some have entertained angels unawares” .
So what is the meaning of this word? Where does it come from? Is it related to Hospice? Or to Hospital? Or both? Well, in its purest form the word hospice, hospital, hospitality come from the Latin word of “hospes” which has the meaning of hosting a guest or stranger and/or “hospitium” meaning guesthouse. As we all know, a Hospice is a place where one can receive “end of life” care for terminally ill patients with a focus on quality and comfort of life instead of cure, and hospitals, on the other hand, focus on cure and health, with one leaving the hospital in a better shape than when they came in, hopefully.
But what is the underlying connection or the common denominator? Service of course! And this is what makes this industry so special. Service does not mean being subservient to another but rather being of service to another – providing something that is missing, an amenity, a product, a benefit, you name it – something that will leave one better off after the fact than before. But, still, what is service? Or better yet, the lack thereof? Well, it’s the customer that comes into your restaurant, and waits patiently while the wait staff do everything except greeting him and taking their order. It’s the customer that comes into your store and has to wait while your sales clerks finish telling a joke among themselves. It’s the person that has to park several blocks away from your business because your staff has taken the best parking spots upfront and so on.
I could write a whole Encyclopedia Britannica on service and still not be done, but, as long as we can remember that hospitality = service and service = hospitality, and that you cannot have one without the other. Lastly, when it doubt, the golden rule always works: “do unto others as you would them do unto you”
We’ve all heard the saying that “to err is human and to forgive divine”…I am of the opinion that “to want/need is human and to serve sublime”.
Like I always say, there are two things you can do! Either you do it or you don’t!
At your service,
Aurelian
