Selfless

A friend recently posted this quote on Facebook: "Selfishness is not living as one wishes to live, it is asking others to live as one wishes to live." - Oscar Wilde

This quote clarified for me the difference between being self-centered and being selfish.

A self-centered person thinks only of their own wants and needs. It is like someone saying, “I want cake and I want it now!”

A selfish person extends their thoughts out to include others, but only so that they can control them. They would say, “You and I are having cake now.”

An unselfish person would say, “I have some cake, would you like some?”

A selfless person would say, “What do you want?”

At our best, humans are selfless.

It is easy to fall into the selfish trap. We experience the world through our senses and assume that everyone shares our view. If I am hungry or tired, then you must be too.

Another friend posted this quote; “We see people and things not as they are, but as we are.”(Citation unsure)

This is the crux of the problem.

I remember when Julie was a baby and could not talk, if I was cold, then I thought she must be too. And while there may have been some truth to the fact of it being cool, she may have been just fine.

The question becomes how do we see things as they are? How do we get outside ourselves and become our best? How to get out of this trap and put someone else’s needs and wants before our own?

Good questions.