Thinking About Me

Selfishness. That, we think, is the root of our troubles. Though if we think about it we usually don't think so. We don't think we behave badly and when we do, when even we can't ignore the fact that we are behaving badly, we resentfully seize on the fact that someone else may be behaving badly, too. It helps us to justify our own behavior to do this. Your mistakes are much easier to spot than my own, and much less painful to work on.

"Sure, I robbed that bank," I offer. "But their overdraft fees are ridiculous." This makes sense to me.

So our troubles, we think, are basically of our own making. Boy, is that true in my case. And the few troubles that I haven't caused by behaving badly generally fall under the Shit That Happens to Everyone category. Everybody has problems of money, sex, and power. It's hardly fair to raise such a stink when they happen to me. But my inner 5 year old -- the one that seems to run my life most of the time -- doesn't like it.

"Why did I get sick?" Little Horseface wails. "Why me? Why me? Why not someone else?"

You, for instance.

I do know that I am incapable of overcoming this selfishness on my own. Sometimes that pesky Higher Power comes in handy with this kind of heavy lifting. Mostly, though, my Higher Power puts a lot of work on my plate that I would rather have moved to your plate.

You have a very large plate.