I have not left the issue yet. I am not done. Though I have not looked up the dictionary meaning of selfishness, I hold the acquired emotional connotation that makes any 'selfish' act bad. I agree, to some point, that some acts could be bad if done for interests that create difficulties for others. But I do not call that selfishness. I call it greed or gluttony or animosity or hate: all acts done in furtherance of ill and malicious thought. Banish that thought!
My selfishness is to want you to understand me. I will take whatever step is necessary to make you know me, hear me, see me, talk to me - understand me. You may come to appreciate me. That way I would have reached and gained what I wanted. I, selfishly, would have achieved something dear to my heart. That is my selfishness.
You know, I pray that what I do does not hurt you. That is not my aim. I aim instead to have you understand my reason(s) so that you will understand where I am coming from. Remember I am not going very far. No matter the distance, the journey is short and it is not because you are in charge of the roadmap. Check your map and see. How many road signs have you missed? My world may not be like yours, but we inhabit the same surface. We do not own it. We cannot own it. Can we share it? Here is the place where we must all be selfish.
If you assume you must have it all, you are not selfish. You are something else. Does that make sense? I hope not.
2 comments:
"Reflections!" could have been a most appropriate title for this piece. Its instructive and captures very fundamental realities. Can you place the issues in a more mundane perspective? I agree with you, just to a point, selfishness can be distructive though.
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