Judges 9:9-13: in context

This is part of Jotham's parable, an ancient fable of the trees, which he cried out against the men who had made his brother Abimelech king. The trees, he says, went out to anoint a king over themselves. They asked the olive tree, but it refused: should I stop producing my oil, by which gods and men are honored, to go sway over the trees? They asked the fig tree, which would not leave its sweetness and good fruit; and the vine, which would not give up its wine that cheers gods and men. Each fruitful tree declined the crown, and only the worthless bramble, in the end, accepted it.

The point of the fable turns on why the fruitful trees refused. The olive, the fig, and the vine each had real, fruitful work, work that nourished and gladdened gods and men, and each saw the offered kingship for what it was, a going out to sway back and forth over the other trees, all prominence and no fruit. They would not abandon something genuinely useful for the empty prestige of ruling. Only the bramble, which produced nothing, had nothing to lose and everything to gain in the crown, and it grasped at the position the fruitful trees declined. There is wisdom in that about prestige and usefulness. The trees that were actually bearing fruit did not chase the crown, because they valued their fruitful work more than the hollow eminence of waving over others; it was the fruitless bramble that hungered for the title. It is worth asking which we are drawn to, the real but often unglamorous work that actually nourishes people, or the prominence and status that can look like an advancement but may be all sway and no fruit. The fruitful are often content to keep bearing fruit, unbothered that no crown is offered them, while those with the least to give are the ones grasping hardest for position. To have genuine fruitful work and be content in it, needing no crown to sway over others, is a quiet kind of wisdom.

Am I content with real but unglamorous work that actually nourishes others, like the fruitful trees, or do I hunger for prominence and status that may be all sway and no fruit, grasping at a crown the truly fruitful did not need?