The gods' service is tolerable, man's intolerable.

People are messier than principles

There's something honest in this ancient complaint that rings true even now. When we answer to abstract principles—duty, fairness, justice, even a company's mission statement—there's a clarity to it. We know where we stand. But when we answer to actual people? That's where things get messy and demanding in ways no rule book can capture. A boss can move the goalposts. A friend can take offense at something we didn't intend. A family member can expect us to read their mind or give up our own needs without being asked.

The tension here isn't about religion versus work, exactly. It's about the difference between serving something fixed versus serving something volatile. People have moods, hidden resentments, shifting expectations. They want not just your labor but your emotional attunement, your flexibility, sometimes your self-erasure. And they'll rarely be as grateful as the effort deserves. That's partly what makes human relationships both necessary and exhausting—we can't simply follow a protocol.

What's interesting is that Plato might have been onto something about why we crave structure and rules. They protect us from the impossible demand of reading hearts perfectly. Yet we can't avoid people. We're stuck trying to serve both.