In my previous post, I wrote about busy season at work and its impact on my life at this time of year. Although the post was published on December 1st, it was actually written a few days earlier. Upon reflection, I realized that it wasn’t too hard to read between the lines and come to the conclusion that the focus was almost entirely on me. In that regard, two recent incidents have served as sober reminders that it’s very easy to get caught up in self-centeredness, even as we try to convince ourselves that such behavior is not the same as being selfish. The Merriam Webster Collegiate Thesaurus lists ”selfishness” as a synonym for “self-centeredness”. It goes on to define selfishness as: “ a concern for one’s own welfare at the expense of or in disregard of others” [emphasis added]. OUCH! Clearly, I needed to add another “self” term to my list - ”self-deception”.
The other day, I was heading to the local FedEx Office center to do a production copy job. My route took me onto a street where a Home Depot Pro Center and a regular Home Depot are about two blocks apart from one another. Because I normally take a different route to the copy center, I hadn’t been on that street for months. Imagine my surprise when I found that the entire two blocks of sidewalk between the stores was occupied by day laborers – who upon seeing that I was driving a wagon/SUV, clamored for my attention. In the past, these men had been pretty much confined to a area around the driveway of the Pro Center. Now there enough of them to cover two city blocks! My heart sank as I thought about my self-centered ”whining” regarding work and how busy I was. All the while, these men were simply wondering if they were going to work that day, perhaps what they were going to eat, or even where they would sleep that night.
The other day I needed to get out of the house (I work out of a home office) for some fresh air and exercise. I decided to go up to Gleneagles and play a quick nine holes of golf. When I got there, I spent some time chatting with the superintendent (greenskeeper) Ignacio. He told me that because business had been very slow this fall, his two assistants had been cut back to five hours a day (yes, they maintain the entire course with only three people). Because I speak Spanish and love to practice it with the staff, I’ve gotten to know his two young assistants fairly well. They commute across the bay from the city of Richmond and while I know they live simply, a 37% reduction in their hours has to be devastating. There I was, with the time and financial resources to play golf, while they’re probably having to consider their employment options - just as Christmas approaches.
In the Bible, the following exhortation is found in a letter written by the apostle Paul to the church community at Philippi (Greece): “Don’t push your way to the front; don’t sweet-talk your way to the top. Put yourself aside, and help others get ahead. Don’t be obsessed with getting your own advantage. Forget yourselves long enough to lend a helping hand” (Philippians 2:3-4, Message Translation). This passage of scrupture and the recent incidents I’ve described have made me realize a somewhat “inconvenient truth” – busy season causes me to disregard others and shut-out things that are happening around me. In so doing, I’m neither thankful for what I have nor aware of how I might be able to help others around me. It’s a hard lesson, but I hope and pray that next year things will be different.
