(August 2, 2015 at 9:17 pm)Iroscato Wrote: In a way I had to be quite selfish to save myself, but only because I eventually realised there was nothing to be done.
You're spot-on about the "selfishness" part.
It again goes back to the Christian upbringing: You are taught to put Christ first, others second, yourself dead last.
Even though I abandoned religion a long time ago, there are vestigial traces, and this is one of them.
It has been a hard lesson for me, but I finally learned that if you give of yourself until you have nothing left,
you actually aren't doing anyone any favours, because you'll eventually burn out completely
...which I did, I had a nervous breakdown, and I didn't even know that was what was happening to me, at the time...
and then someone else has to pick you up, and you're no good to anyone.
So, agreed.....at the very least,
a minimal, self-preservationist-level of selfishness is actually of benefit to those around us, as well as to ourselves, obviously.
