You'd be surprised how many good pictures come up when you google "selfish."My last blog led me to contemplate (again) my ongoing malady of selfishness. That led me to a realization that maybe I could use this blog as a way to explore means of becoming less selfish. Then I realized that might mean I would have to change something about my life and thought better of it.
I don't want to change.
Edit that...I want to change, but it usually includes ways I can spend more time or money on the things that I want to do.
"It is not because the truth is too difficult to see that we make mistakes...we make mistakes because the easiest and most comfortable course for us is to seek insight where it accords with our emotions -- especially selfish ones." Alexander Solzhenitsyn (author) (Who knew Russians were so smart (no offence to any of my Russian readers.))
I guess that sort of suggests that, not only am I selfish, but my reason for contemplating my own selfishness is actually selfish as well.
Yeah. I would feel better about myself if I wasn't so selfish. Then I could look in the mirror and say, "You son-of-a-gun! Look at you all unselfish and giving. You are one good....great guy!"
“Selfishness must be discovered and understood before it can be removed. It is powerless to remove itself, neither will it pass away of itself. Darkness ceases only when light is introduced; so ignorance can only be dispersed by Knowledge; selfishness by Love." James Allan (statesman)
Ah, but it is love which creates selfishness in the first place. I'm full of it (love, that is). It's just mostly focused on me. (Besides, I don't even like people. They get in the way of my "me" time.)
Perhaps I should just drop this idea of becoming less selfish. I took an online quiz that said I was only 46% selfish.
(Look at me, all 54% unselfish and giving and stuff!)
When in the world are you going to stop assuming your Father's role of boxing yourself into a category into which you KNOW, with that keen intellect of yours, Reed Richards, that you do not belong?
ReplyDeleteYou confuse introspection with self-absorption, and they are two very different things entirely.
You also tend to forget that there is only a certain percentage of Richard left at the end of any given day after you have given portions of Richard away here, portions of it there, and some percentage of what's left STILL BELONGS TO RICHARD, no matter what.
Now, do we, as Fathers and as Husbands, struggle for balance sometimes in being giving of our time when we sometimes don't think we have enough left in the tank and either our wife or our kids really need us?
Do we sometimes need to reach maybe a little deeper than we think we are capable of and pull out those few extra drops and use them?
Yes, we do. But sometimes we fall short and we fail. Sometimes we don't fail. Sometimes we are Turbo-charged Super-Dads and sometimes we are Sex Machines. Sometimes we are Ward Cleaver and sometimes we are Homer Simpson.
But selfish? You? No...I could assemble a line-up of people who know you and none of them would pick that word to describe you, and that MEANS something. So find another word to describe...whatever it is that you are feeling about yourself dude, before I have to come down their and open up a can of Whoop Ass.
I can see that I have been away from you far too long.
And of course I meant 'there' not 'their'.
ReplyDeleteStupid Blogger lack of editing capability...
Well...I am speechless. Gotta give myself credit for choosing an awesome lifetime best friend though. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteMaybe we should go into psychological practice together.
Your vote of confidence means more than you will ever know.
Miss you.
I'd be happy to open a clinic with you. You can do the real Psychology, and my office next door will handle the tough love counseling/boxing sessions for alcoholics and addicts, experimental therapies with hallucinogenic or psychotropic medications with music/naked swimming, and special evening sessions for single mothers.
ReplyDeleteYeah...pretty sure our friendship ends at the pearly gates bud, my train keeps on going to Hell and you get to stop and get off at the mall where they have all the best stores, a great food court and an Electronics Boutique with no kids playing ANY of the demo machines.
I have to agree with Kenneth here. Richard, you are NOT selfish. Your wife's and daughter's lives are evidence of your unselfishness and generosity. They are both blessed by your material and spiritual gifts. You and Delma are 2 of the least selfish people I know; constantly giving to each other in material and emotional ways. AND! Again, Dora is your mirror image, so if you were selfish, she would be too!!!
ReplyDelete