SELFLESS-ness (1)

Forced conformity?
Duty and loyalty are somewhat enforced conformity constructs. Being earnest on obligation is also commendable; it allows people to work sincerely, serve honestly and labor genuinely towards a purpose. However selflessness (also well understood as altruism) is an extension of acts performed without any beneficial purpose; of being there for others without mandate, devoid of personal gain, minus tangible advantage. True selflessness seems rare since there always seems to be some hidden benefit to all actions. Good seems harder to perform than bad (usually). Many have equated goodness to be synonymous with feebleness; since wrong doers seem to be big and arrogant and boisterous while the good are meek. The yin and yang frequently twist about in the circle of life. Most know when they have been selfish (thankfully so), while some have it involuntarily engrained (sadly). Philanthropy is a conscious struggle; some traits that define it may be as under:

less self more others

Softhearted

Empathic

Lucid

Forthcoming

Loving

Effervescent

Sympathetic

Sensitive

Are you on the winning team?

Now ‘winning and losing’ is something we have known at the outset in childhood itself. Being the winner oneself is just one dimension, even cheering for the winning team is imperative; else you’re a ‘loser’. When we spend those large sums of money on attending live games, or betting on racing horses, it’s your respect at stake not the horses’! We gamble, and if we lose, we lose the game, the bet, probably some money, and apparently our self-regard too! What an irrational world this planet has become!