On Serving and Self Serving

There are many folks who enjoy helping others, and they know that there is an expansion of joy that takes place within them when they do. I think this is a natural, spiritual lift that takes place whenever we do for another…perhaps a form of internal recognition of our spiritual kinship. But there is also another element here that can seem a bit complicated. There is something called service to the self and being self serving…and they are not at all related! They involve a couple of mind sets that are oppositional to each another. When we serve others we are ourselves served as a natural effect of the giving-receiving continuum, whereas the energies of the self serving simply circle around their own interests, touching little outside themselves.

A distinct lack of connection...
In a recent article, Robert Reich, former U.S. secretary of labor and current professor of public policy at UC Berkeley, lamented the fact that we do not seem to have “moral obligations to one another as members of the same society.” He quoted a stunning comment by a young man who said that he would rather pay a penalty then buy health insurance because... “why should I pay for the sick and the old?” It is not that he should but that he could choose to see the larger value for many. Whether or not we agree on the Affordable Health Care Act is not the point here. What is more to the point is that there is a distinct lack of connection among many of us as members of the American society. We do not seem to see that, ultimately, we must all do well or none will do well.

A creeping loss of awareness...
It has been said that the sign of a great people is in how they treat the most vulnerable among them. As Americans we have implicitly agreed to a social contract in which we agree upon certain laws by which we will be governed and to behave toward one another as fellow citizens. When we seem not to remember the agreed-upon collectivity that allows us to function as free individuals, we are in danger of allowing a creeping loss of awareness into our bright thinking.

No opting out...
Now that the tinsel is thrown away and the holiday trappings packed up, we as spiritually adept people can remember again that we are all in this life together…with no opting out.