The TV series Babylon 5 is set upon a space station that sits at the intersection of several inhabited areas of space and acts as a sort of United Nations, where ambassadors of each race meet and discuss how to keep things running.
Ambassador G’kar, played by the talented Andreas Katsulas, has a number of pithy sayings during the series. One of my favorites has always been “The universe is run by the complex interweaving of three elements: Energy, matter, and enlightened self-interest.”
As I’ve said before, I’m an introvert. I saw a T-shirt that sort of sums up interacting with people for me – “I used to be a people person then people ruined it.” Couple that with my theory that there is very little true Evil in the world, that most of what we call evil is people being stupid and selfish, and I come up with that dealing with selfish people is difficult for me.
The top two commandments delivered by Jesus in the New Testament are to love God above all things, and to love your neighbor as yourself. I must admit I often fail at the second one. I don’t actively wish ill upon my neighbors but neither do I love them. At best, I try to at least like my neighbors.
On my way traveling the path to loving my neighbors, I at least try to apply the principle of enlightened self-interest to my interactions. (See, I brought things back around to the subject at hand.) As I said in my post the other day I try to do at least one small thing each day for someone else to make their day go smoother.
I’m looking at things long-term. If I can help make things go better for others each day, eventually I’m going to need help on something and that help will show up from somewhere. Sort of like It’s A Wonderful Life where George Bailey spends the whole movie doing things for other people, oftentimes in detriment to his own self-interest, but it eventually pays off for him when he needs help. (If you haven’t seen the movie, go watch it. Now.)
Maybe Zig Ziglar said it best when he said “You can have everything in life you want, if you will just help enough other people get what they want.”
Who can you help today?
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