Random Hangover Dec 25 Thoughts About the Self-Centered

 In their delirium of grandeur, the self-centered come to believe that there is strength -and even power over others- in their unwillingness to be generous of spirit or give of themselves. I believe it is quite the opposite. This form of emotional usury can never make you stronger, it only makes you weaker. 

Only those prepared to give and take emotionally can claim to be humanly whole and complete. Without a relationship of equals you might as well be living only an illusion of life in the vacuum of your isolation and false sense of power. If you don’t give emotionally, anyone still around you is either a parasite that is taking something else from you, or perhaps even worse, someone who lacks the self-respect and dignity necessary to expect emotional reciprocity from you.

I believe it is only the intelligent who will expect justice, equality and mutual recognition in their relationships with others. In other words, the truly intelligent person is strong and expects to practice reciprocal generosity in their relationships. Such persons also never accept subservience and power imbalance as a permanent condition in human interaction, and because of this, only in a relationship with such persons can we expect to equally receive and impart authentic strength, freedom, love and wisdom. 

The only real friend, the only good counsel, the only true lover is he or she that, because they live "in justice" with others, are also capable of giving of themselves freely to others. Those who don’t ever learn how to be just can never truly give of themselves either. While seemingly satisfied and empowered, I believe that those who thrive on the unconditional adulation of the weak and emotionally imbalanced must be some of the loneliest, most ignorant, most frightening and most frightened people on earth…