“SELFISH” VS. “SELFLESS”
We’re talking about the self in this series. This is no 7.
We introduce the word and concept of Selfishness.
Image: Amadeo78
We have to figure out who we are and what we want in life.
A person has to spend time on his or her SELF.
We can’t spend ALL of our time on ourselves.
We have to take others into our consideration, into our purview
of what belongs to our selves.
Of course, that’s right.
What happens when we seem to be spending all or most of our time and efforts on others?
What if we’re not being selfish, but selfless?
Often people think you are selfish if you spend ANY time on
yourself–especially when you have responsibility for others.
Women, after they are married, are often known as wives, mothers, homemakers (if they are doing that) and providers.
They often get the sense that they have lost them-Selves in
this work. They feel the world looks at them in only those
roles.
This gets to become more acute when women pass a certain age,
when, aside from the roles I’ve mentioned, women feel they
are non persons in any other sense.
On the street, men no longer look at them as attractive.
Scratch that: they no longer look at them at all!
Not worth a swiveled heard of admiration.
Or seen as anything except in those other roles.
Which is to say, often, as nothing at all.
A man too, although it is not recognized or discussed much,
can be considered (or at least consider himself) to be a husband,
worker,and father.
And not much else.
Gone are other kinds of self-identifiers for many people.
I’m not saying it’s wrong, that it doesn’t indicate a maturity.
Just that a part of what used to be considered at least part of
the self, seems to have disappeared.
Thinking about your self in this way is not wrong.
It is being self-ish in the sense that what we are doing
is related to the self.
But it is not mean-spirited or wrong.
Could be that it is being selfless, not selfish?
If we don’t figure this out (and maybe beating ourselves up)
we won’t have a grown-up self.
And heaven knows in this world, we need to be grown-ups.
Tell your significant other he or she is beautiful.
They are.
I’m with you on this!
For more information on you, please sign up for my series of emails.
Right at the top. To your right.
Frank
SELF SERIES 1: WHATEVER YOU DO TONIGHT, PLEASE DON’T BE YOURSELF!
SELF SERIES 2: DO IT YOURSELF: KNOW YOURSELF. Are you You? Do you even know YOURSELF?
SELF SERIES 3: SEARCHING FOR YOURSELF? FLYING BLIND? Need a new search party? Try you!
SELF SERIES 4: THE SELF: DO YOU FIND YOURSELF OR CREATE IT? AND WHY BOTHER ANYWAY?
SELF SERIES 5: Sarah Slean: The girl knows who she is and what she wants to do!
SELF SERIES 6: Self-discovery without Self-Viagra. Absent good parents you’ll need it.
