Fear and Loathing in James Vegas
Thursday. It just sounds bland. Yeah by the time you hit the big "TH", you are on the downhill part of the week, and yet there is truly no real reason to celebrate.
Here's the deal. How can a person love another, when he/she has issues loving him/herself? Can they? I've met more than a few people who outwardly seem selfish and self-centered, but upon getting to know them, they are some of the most generous people I know. And yet, while they try to save the world with scotch-tape and scissors, their own situation worsens to the point at which they have very little control. It's like they try to busy themselves to the extent that they have no or very little time to take care of themselves. They give, and give, and give until there is so little left of themselves that they wonder who they are and how they ended up here. That's gotta be hell on your self esteem.
I've often wondered whether there is truly a pure form of altruism. Most good deeds can be ruled out by arguing that the doer benefits in one way or another from the act. But the type of behavior I've described above and observed among a handful of my closest friends, cannot be positive for the samaritan. What started out as a person, ends up like a used-up tube of toothpaste; empty, useless, and twisted. And do you know how hard it is to get that stuff back in there?
Here's the deal. How can a person love another, when he/she has issues loving him/herself? Can they? I've met more than a few people who outwardly seem selfish and self-centered, but upon getting to know them, they are some of the most generous people I know. And yet, while they try to save the world with scotch-tape and scissors, their own situation worsens to the point at which they have very little control. It's like they try to busy themselves to the extent that they have no or very little time to take care of themselves. They give, and give, and give until there is so little left of themselves that they wonder who they are and how they ended up here. That's gotta be hell on your self esteem.
I've often wondered whether there is truly a pure form of altruism. Most good deeds can be ruled out by arguing that the doer benefits in one way or another from the act. But the type of behavior I've described above and observed among a handful of my closest friends, cannot be positive for the samaritan. What started out as a person, ends up like a used-up tube of toothpaste; empty, useless, and twisted. And do you know how hard it is to get that stuff back in there?
posted by Mr. Social at
1:04 PM
4 Comments:
I think the only people we can truly love, like truly truly love are our children. I mean you can care about other people but that whole unconditional thing in my opinion only applies to one's own flesh and blood.
Everyone else is just intense like and after time the intense fades and we even halfta work at the like part a little harder.
You love me don't you?
Okay, don't crucify me for giving what you may consider to be hokey advice but here goes.
I think we first need to love God (no jokes please), then ourselves, then our spouse, then our children. That is not to say we love ourselves more than our spouse or our spouse more than our children - just saying I think it needs to happen in that order. If we don't have a loving relationship with our spouse, it is hard to set an example for our children (we're all from broken homes so we know this).
Now - if your spouse doesn't subscribe to this theory, then that's a problem of course. But can you see why you need to at least love yourself first? If you don't, you're no good to anyone else.
Aren't you so glad I found your blog?
Signed,
Your resident amateur psychologist
hey just remember, it wasn't the Princess who spilled the beans to DR Prep.
The DR. is in just 10 cents.
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