LIFE

I figure that worry is pretty unproductive. In some cases, it is good, but most of the time people are restricted by it. They get nervous, or plan so much for the future, or are anxious for something. There's a difference between worrying because you want to do well, and worrying because you think you don't have the ability.

Why is love so important to the matter? It has to do with love as an abstraction that is social, not just individual. Love that goes two-ways, and is dependent, not independent. Once at a Christian retreat I learned that you can't really love an object. People 'love' objects, but they really like them. Or, rather, real love is reserved for sentient beings. For instance: I love this hat a lot. I love this beer a little. I love Turbodog more than anything. That's not true love because love doesn't come in degrees. That's 'like.'

My point is, when someone else is having a problem, a person you 'love,' that you don't want to see upset, let's say a friend who you've known and respected and admired for awhile - what does one do? Well one begins to comfort the other person, I would hope. And in those moments of comforting doesn't one usually look for and suggest alternatives, positive alternatives, fantastic outcomes, strategies to change the topic or lighten the mood, say things that are wonderful and great, help, maybe even physically, with whatever situation is at hand.

Anyway. What happens when people begin to face problems of their own?. I think, sometimes people get themselves into trouble, get themselves into an even more upset and angry and sad and whatever emotional, negative state, simply because they forget about the fact that love is two-ways. In a way it's selfish, and in a way it's not.

Let me elaborate.

It is a selfish thing to continue to be upset and continue to worry. Why? Because remember, a person who loves and wants to help someone else would do all the things I suggested up there, and would find perhaps even more inventive and creative ways to ameliorate the pain, assuage the nerves, you get my point.

Point is, if you loved yourself, you would do the same exact thing for yourself. (That's where it's not selfish). So if you help and make another person feel better during times of stress, then you should realize that you, yourself, are made up of lots of different people, and so loving yourself, as selfish as it seems, should mean you comfort yourself and do the things you'd do for someone else for yourself. Surely it is hard and produces doubts, but it is a good way to live, I think.

Doesn't that seem logical?