Essentially selfishness, not!

“Caring about the happiness of others, we find our own.”

                                                           Plato

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I was a philosophy major once

“what is the meaning of it all”

Until my professor suggested I wasn’t quite crazy enough

To be a good philosopher

So I finished my philosophy requirements

And then moved to English

Thus major number two

“alas poor Yorick, I knew him…”

Then Theology

Not just a masters, a doctorate

“What is the nature of God, I mean really!?”

And finally Psychology

“What do you say to yourself about your self”

And through it all

As strange as it may seem

I learned one thing

It is in expending oneself

Giving  one’s self to others

That one finds the meaning of life

Finds the way to connect to others

Experiences the Sacred

And finds out who one really is

How odd it is

That it took all that schooling

To confirm what my mother said to me

Not long before my marriage

If you want to be happy

Do all you can to make the other person happy

How sad it is

That in America we have decided that if we want to be happy

We must make it all about us

We must struggle and strive

To pull stuff to ourselves

Plato knew better

Jesus knew better

So did my mom