Self-esteem and selflessness should co-exist. The purest level of esteem requires the ability to see the self independent of others, and wish well for both sides. How can I be at peace with myself if I haven’t done everything in my power to assure everyone the freedom and opportunity to pursue their goals? Until each person is happy, how can there be harmony in the universe?
How sad the society where one can’t be content unless everyone endorses his beliefs or tastes. How pitiful the person whose beliefs are meaningless without the endorsements of others. I prefer asparagus, flannel pajamas, liquid soap, hardwood floors, and large rooms. Therefore, I must change your mind if you insist on broccoli, silk gowns, bar soap, carpet, and small rooms. You get your thrills from Santa Claus, golf, and the bible. If anything else excites or motivates me, you must eradicate it and insist I enjoy what pleases you?
How rational is it to think that what someone else does in his life affects me in mine? I asked the man who once wanted to defend my honor what made him believe another person had any control over my honor. My honor belongs only to me, and no one else can affect it. I pose the same question to those who plead for others to protect the sanctity of their marriage, or the safety of their self-esteem. Sanctity and esteem are internal, one a relationship between a person and their beliefs, and the other a relationship with the self. No one else has any control over what lives inside a person.
When I am happy, I sent positive energy into the universe. It seems logical to me that when the people around me are happy, they will do the same. Is it not in my best interest to do all I can to make everyone around me happy? I don’t believe it is possible to achieve this any way other than offering each person the freedom to be who they are and live their own beliefs.
I question the faith and strength of anyone who cannot stand alone with his or her beliefs, who cannot understand that nothing anyone else does can affect those beliefs, and who does not value the right of others to live by different beliefs. Self-esteem demands selflessness.
Sandy Knauer
When people demand that their beliefs are endorsed in the face of a heap of factual evidence they are bound to get into conflict with the world.
What I do notice is the way a lot of people pick from a sort of spiritual finger buffet. Its the "Oh, I'm a Christian because Jesus is a nice, clean Anglo - Saxon boy, but I eat Easter eggs,like karma and have a Navajo dream catcher above my bed" thing.
Good article again.
Ian
interesting
felix