Generosity/selfishness

I hate selfishness. Especially when I suffer from it, but also when others do. It's like a disease that not only effects you by making you think that you somehow can't survive without that one little thing, but it also effects those around you by making them seem slightly less important. I keep trying to remind myself that generosity is a massive challenge and that's why it helps me grow. It's like Jacques said in his sermon. Generosity is the antidote to selfishness. It's like having a cancerous tumor cut out. It hurts like crap, but is really rewarding afterwards. Yet, we don't cut out this tumor. We leave it there to grow and grow till it sucks all life out of our bodies. Till we become so consumed by it that we die. Although selfishness doesn't actually kill us, I believe strongly that it is the root of all the inequality we experience in our world. We see children starving to death and yet we prefer to buy a new shirt from Glassons for $20 than give that $20 to charity. Why are we not effected by the fact that our luxury is making others starve?

I know I seem a little bit pessimistic about human nature here. You have to admit that if you hold by some form of evolutionary psychology it makes sense. We have a drive to survive. However, our society has changed so much, but that drive to hang on to things in order to survive is still there. We have plenty of food (well, some of us do), housing and security, yet we tend to feel like we're going to somehow suffer if we don't upgrade our iPhone 3g to a iPhone 4. Next time you feel like you NEED a new pair of shoes, or NEED to eat out for dinner, just think about those that have less.

Hope it makes you think. It's certainly has made me think.