Tuesday, March 30, 2021

Selfish

      Most of the time when you are growing up the structure of the world’s attitude is a “What’s in it for me?” type of a scenario.  You are taught to look at various situations and try to determine how the outcome is going to effect YOU!  Are you going to be better for what is done, or will you be better if something IS NOT done?  You are always trying to analyze the outcome of situations.  And some of those situations can become very complicated.   

     Then as you get older you realize that the point of your analysis was not truly to find out if you would be better or not, but to simply see that the outcome you would be looking for would be of benefit to YOU.  And sometimes those outcomes MIGHT be beneficial, but at what cost to others?  We were more often not trained (or taught) to consider those possibilities before we made our final decisions.  It was all about US!  That selfish ME, ME, ME attitude!

     Simple put, we were taught (or trained) to look after ourselves FIRST!  That lacking consideration for others; concerned chiefly with one’s own personal profit or pleasure is exactly what being selfish means.  Stop and think for a moment.  Even today, we do so many things for selfish reasons.  And often it doesn’t simply apply to our individual self.  We do this same type of evaluation for our families, our communities, our cities or towns, our states, even our countries.  The entire efforts we put into most matters is simply because we want to get something for ourselves, and we often do not consider the needs of others or how our actions are going to affect them!

     This self-consideration starts when we are small babies.  Consider a baby: it will cry when hungry, cry when a diaper needs changing, and it will cry whenever it wants the attention of its mother.  It’s all about the baby!  We understand that.  A baby is basically helpless.  Until they reach a certain age in life, they cannot do things for themselves.  They only know that THEY want something and that crying is the only way they are going to get it!  The sad thing for some babies is that as they grow up, they still consider that all things are about them!  And they want what they want, when they want it, and it doesn’t matter about the time, energy, or concerns of anyone else!

     This reminds me of a story that I heard about a young boy who had attended a party at the home of one of his friends.  When it came time for him to leave, the story goes like this:

     His friend’s mother approached him and said:  “Johnny, why don’t you have one more cookie before you leave?”  Little Johnny replied:  “I can’t Mrs. Jones, I’m already full.”  Mrs. Jones then told him, “Why don’t you put one in your pocket to take home and enjoy it later.”  Little Johnny then said: “I can’t do that either.  My pockets are also full!”

     It’s a simple story, but I think it makes the point!  For most of our lives we are only thinking about ourselves.  This mental attitude makes it hard for us to have successful lives, successful families, and so on.  When we only think about ourselves and what WE are going to get, it tends to isolate us from others because they don’t want to be around such a selfish person!  They don’t want to be around US!

    Could it be that we would be much happier if we followed the simple lesson, we probably learned in one of our Sunday School lessons: “There is more happiness in giving than in receiving!”  Wouldn’t it make our lives and the lives of those around us better to have that type of attitude instead of a selfish one?

     If you are a Star Trek fan (like I am and have been for many years), you will remember that in one particular scene from “The Wrath of Khan” (released in 1982), Spock says, “Logic clearly dictates that the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.”  Captain Kirk answers, “Or the one.”  This line sets up various additional scenes in this movie as well as several to follow.  You might find interesting the discussion of this statement by Ari Armstrong concerning Spock’s ILLOGIC! (https://theobjectivestandard.com/2013/09/spocks-illogic-the-needs-of-the-many-outweigh-the-needs-of-the-few/ )

     The basis of this post is to get us thinking that when things come down to the basic truth, we are a selfish bunch of piles of flesh!  The bottom line is: we’re only human!

QUOTE TO CONSIDER


THOUGHTFUL GEM

"If you don't think of others,

how will others think of you?"



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