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“Love your neighbor as yourself.”
This proves to be quite a difficult task. How many people do we know that truly live up to this? I’m sure most people have a few special people that they would do anything for. But what about people outside of that group?
In a similar vein, why do we do things?
Is it possible to do something completely selflessly?
Even if we’re not “gaining” anything when we do something nice for someone else, aren’t we still anticipating something in return? Appreciation? A sense of feeling good that we did something helpful?
Whenever we do something for other people, there’s always some kind of benefit, material or immaterial, that we expect for our own gain, isn’t there?
So, can we do anything that isn’t, at least in part, for ourselves?
3 comments:
Once again, good photo, good post.
I've often thought about this idea of unavoidable selfishness, and it's been quite a source of confusion for me. I'd like to think that--at times--we can be selfless in our motivations for things, but you do make a good point in your blog post. Really, I'm not sure what I think about this.
Very interesting.
This is an incredibly difficult thing to argue. I've thought about this a lot.
And... I've decided that there is no selfless act, and, in everything we do, including loving others, we essentially do for ourselves.
You have my respect, though. I really appreciate your ability to write a short post and make it say so much.
I would have to say that it is impossible. I think that God made us so that we feel good when we do good things...and it's an even better reward in the long run when we do "unselfish" acts. The world works best that way.
In fact, you would have no reason for wanting to do a selfless act if it were possible. Just the fact that you want to be able to do it would make doing it a reward.
Definitely thought provoking.
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