I don’t want to talk about me, of course, but it seems as though far too much attention has been lavished on you lately or rather you have lavished attention only upon yourself. You are certainly not to blame for caring too much for yourself because only your happiness matters in your life. People come and go and, eventually, you only have to be able to live with yourself. So, your selfish being chooses your actions and words carefully as to fulfill your desires and needs and this image you have of yourself.
What do you mean? you ask, dumbfounded. I’m not self-absorbed. Of course, I care for others. Just ask my friends or anyone. I help everyone and give back whenever I can, whether it be to charities or anyone in need of a helping hand.
Once again, the walls of your defense mechanism go up. You fire off all of these false reasons to support your cherished claim: you are the most loving, selfless, and wonderful person that you can be. Well, here you’re wrong again. How do you know if all of that is true? Can you say with confidence that you always put someone else’s urgent, valid problems over your minute ones? Are you really mindful and tolerant and empathetic towards everyone? If you answered no, you’re not alone and it’s only natural, but it also means that you do live in this tiny box in which you only matter. Sure, you do nice things for people but only for those who you like and you want to think of you with approval or even admiration. After all, all that really matters is others’ perception of you, but only certain individuals really matter.
Subconsciously or even consciously, you’ve already classified every person you’ve met or even glanced at into generic or overly complicated categories: dumb, go-getter, overanalyzing blubbering idiot, lazy yet successful, etc., etc. Without much thought, you don’t care much to interact with certain individuals in specific categories because they don’t pertain to you. So, most of the time, you don’t give them your undivided attention or provide little to no help. They’re just sort of there, but you don’t give much thought to their feelings because again they’re just white noise, background music, one with the wallpaper behind them. If all of the overlooked people in your life were dropped into a small room with just you, you would occupy yourself with something else or make small talk but still give them as little of your energy as possible. Now, you don’t necessarily think these individuals are bad people but simply don’t appeal to you whether it’s because of their personalities or their choices or maybe just their appearances.
Well, this innate, inconsiderate mindset is prevalent in everyone. In his “This is Water” speech, even David Foster Wallace repeatedly adheres to the fact that this “natural, basic self-centeredness” controls you and the entire human race. The only way to depart from this way of living is to change your mindset and think of the big picture. Be open-minded. Be empathetic. Get rid of your labels and get over your ego and go on and live your life wholeheartedly. Okay. Thankfully, this rant is over. Yeah, I get it… People are selfish and don’t care about anyone but themselves. Blah. Blah. Blah... Now, tell me. How does any of this pertain to me?
What do you mean? you ask, dumbfounded. I’m not self-absorbed. Of course, I care for others. Just ask my friends or anyone. I help everyone and give back whenever I can, whether it be to charities or anyone in need of a helping hand.
Once again, the walls of your defense mechanism go up. You fire off all of these false reasons to support your cherished claim: you are the most loving, selfless, and wonderful person that you can be. Well, here you’re wrong again. How do you know if all of that is true? Can you say with confidence that you always put someone else’s urgent, valid problems over your minute ones? Are you really mindful and tolerant and empathetic towards everyone? If you answered no, you’re not alone and it’s only natural, but it also means that you do live in this tiny box in which you only matter. Sure, you do nice things for people but only for those who you like and you want to think of you with approval or even admiration. After all, all that really matters is others’ perception of you, but only certain individuals really matter.
Subconsciously or even consciously, you’ve already classified every person you’ve met or even glanced at into generic or overly complicated categories: dumb, go-getter, overanalyzing blubbering idiot, lazy yet successful, etc., etc. Without much thought, you don’t care much to interact with certain individuals in specific categories because they don’t pertain to you. So, most of the time, you don’t give them your undivided attention or provide little to no help. They’re just sort of there, but you don’t give much thought to their feelings because again they’re just white noise, background music, one with the wallpaper behind them. If all of the overlooked people in your life were dropped into a small room with just you, you would occupy yourself with something else or make small talk but still give them as little of your energy as possible. Now, you don’t necessarily think these individuals are bad people but simply don’t appeal to you whether it’s because of their personalities or their choices or maybe just their appearances.
Well, this innate, inconsiderate mindset is prevalent in everyone. In his “This is Water” speech, even David Foster Wallace repeatedly adheres to the fact that this “natural, basic self-centeredness” controls you and the entire human race. The only way to depart from this way of living is to change your mindset and think of the big picture. Be open-minded. Be empathetic. Get rid of your labels and get over your ego and go on and live your life wholeheartedly. Okay. Thankfully, this rant is over. Yeah, I get it… People are selfish and don’t care about anyone but themselves. Blah. Blah. Blah... Now, tell me. How does any of this pertain to me?
Julia this is really good! You really emulated the authors voice and style while talking about a more relatable topic. Also your connection to David Foster Wallace's speech is well done. Moreover, your last sentence is hilarious and really adds to the satire in this post.
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