(no subject)
Jan. 22nd, 2018 11:02 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
stormdogFrom elsewhere on the internet:
"What we do for ourselves dies with us. What we do for others and the world remains and is immortal."
This is the sort of sentiment echoes my motivation for a lot choices I made as I thought about an academic career devoted to a certain kind of public service.
It also occurs to me that this is also the kind of sentiment that leads me to prioritize other people in my life above myself to such an extent that I knowingly make poor decisions and put myself in jeopardy of mental, and occasionally physical, harm.
If what we do for ourselves is unimportant, why should we want anyone else to want to care for us? Meaningfulness of actions that provide aid and comfort is not contextually defined; it is important to be good to ourselves as well. (Says a person who is pretty bad at it.) This sentiment feels seductive and dangerous. Maybe it's safer than I think it is and most people don't take it as much to heart as I think I sometimes have.
"What we do for ourselves dies with us. What we do for others and the world remains and is immortal."
This is the sort of sentiment echoes my motivation for a lot choices I made as I thought about an academic career devoted to a certain kind of public service.
It also occurs to me that this is also the kind of sentiment that leads me to prioritize other people in my life above myself to such an extent that I knowingly make poor decisions and put myself in jeopardy of mental, and occasionally physical, harm.
If what we do for ourselves is unimportant, why should we want anyone else to want to care for us? Meaningfulness of actions that provide aid and comfort is not contextually defined; it is important to be good to ourselves as well. (Says a person who is pretty bad at it.) This sentiment feels seductive and dangerous. Maybe it's safer than I think it is and most people don't take it as much to heart as I think I sometimes have.
