Sunday, July 18, 2010

Personal selfishness

I've been thinking about selfishness a lot lately. My own. It is making me more than a little uncomfortable. I've been thinking about how easy it is to accuse someone else of selfishness, and also how easy it is to excuse my own selfish behaviors.

We have a beautiful home in an idyllic setting... it's way more than what is needed to comfortably house my family. Is this selfish? Is it selfish to have frivolous things like jewelry that I treasure? You could feed a lot of people or send a lot of children to school for the amount of money that paid for my treasured bracelet.

Is it selfish to want another child when we have five already? Five who each have their own particular needs... some more major than others, but all important to that person and our family. What about taking a child from half way across the world, away from his family and culture... is that selfish?

Or spending a couple of thousand dollars on surgery for our beloved little dog?

I don't know the answers. I am going to try to find them.