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The Glamour of Selfishness

I heard this phrase the other day, used by a television news show guest (you can probably guess who/what he was talking about), and it caught my ear. The subject opined upon by the speaker was something quite different than mindfulness or meditation, but the phrase stuck with me and has been popping into my mind a lot, so I thought I might run with it as a piece in this blog-- just to see where it would lead me. Imagine my surprise!

In the most literal sense, our "self" is a very personal thing. An individual thing. A ME thing. Metaphorically speaking, however, our "self" is a collective thing. A one-among-many thing. A WE thing. So what is it? What really is our self? What does being self-ish really mean? Maybe it's one thing, or maybe it's another. Maybe it's both. Maybe it's something different, all together.

Whatever one may ultimately conclude, the notion of thinking about our "self" is certainly worth while-- and we all have more time to think these days. More importantly, what we think about will likely influence the way we act and as the old saying goes, actions speak louder than words. Hmmm. Actions, words, thoughts and feelings-- that's a lot to think about!

After due consideration, I'm going with "we" rather than "me" for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that "we" provides a much broader context for looking at my self, than "me" does. And as it just happens, that context leads me to a completely different conclusion about my self and what it means to be self-ish.

More important than any particular answer, though, is the hard truth that we need to first be aware of the question, before we can even ask it-- we need to think about whether being self-ish is good or bad, or maybe even necessary. As it turns out, making time for our selves (pun intended) can actually be very important.

So, let's hit the cushion (or however one might prefer to meditate), and be curious about our selves. And what it is to be self-ish. Our thoughts, or feelings may surprise us!


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