“All for one, and One for all!” That saying came to mind when I awoke this morning. Don’t know why…but when I started thinking about the meaning of the saying I thought it to be powerful.
I think I first heard the saying in the movie Robin Hood (the old Errol Flynn version). The Merry Men of Sherwood Forest and Robin Hood said it boisterously as they were drinking a toast. That is my recollection anyway. Perhaps, it’s from a scene in another movie…but that is the setting I recall.
The point I am trying to put forth is that the saying is empowering. We need more of that spirit today. It lifts both the individual and the collective. If you said only half the saying it takes on a whole different attitude.
“All for one.” Is rather selfish. It construes the idea that the one individual is the only one that matters, and the collective must support that individual at great sacrifice.
On the other hand, “One for all” connotes a message that you must sacrifice for the collective. If you don’t heed that directive you will be looked at as lesser.
However, if both “All for one, and One for all!” is proclaimed as one declaration… THAT gives both comfort in the idea that others are with you in total support, and calls for you, in a show of gratitude and unity, to give your total support to those who have supported you.
In the case of the Merry Men of Sherwood Forest and Robin Hood, both the whole and the individuals, were pledging themselves to a cause against the Sheriff of Nottingham who was taking the hard-earned money of the already struggling people in the form of burdening taxes. The “All for one, and One for all!” declaration was a boost to morale, and a means to defeat a tyrannical foe. I think the statement is one for the ages and shouldn’t be forgotten.
Diana Erbio is the author of “Coming to America: A Girl Struggles to Find her Way in a New World”. Read her Blog Series “Statues: The People They Salute”, and visit the Facebook Page.