Be inspired:
Learning Respect

Do not make a servant

Did you bow in front of somebody before? Looked at her/him, bowed your head before her/him and looked down in this moment? No, I don’t think of “making a bow” like the elder generation has understand it. No bow of the children towards the adults, of the little towards the big, of the powerless towards the powerful… No sign of surrender which only emphasises and strengthens the power relationship existing from top and bottom.

Bowing for freedom

But a bow of your own choice. A gesture that honours the other one as counterpart, no matter how different we are. As an expression that she has the same secret as I. That we both belong to the people’s family. That a fellow human is looking at me in whose face God has indicated himself – his image, like me. Both are called to an upright walking – and therefore both are worth a bow. A bow in which self-confidence and trust in the counterpart go hand in hand and also to look at each other – to look back and forth, literally: to respect.

Bowing as a risk

A bow is a risk. It can be misunderstood. As an expression of the old logic of top and bottom, of victory or defeat, of self-loss and gaining of power. The line of trust is fine. You can slip off, lose the balance, to have to support yourself. The sculpture of the artist Wladimir Rudolf shows how to find a new axis at the same time.

One hand on the ground which is carrying us. One hand reaching for the sky from which hope is coming towards us. That we will walk upright again, to look at each other, to recognise each other – and to bow before each other.

Dr. Mirjam Laaser und Philipp Elhaus