Greed

A friend asked me about my greed. I said it wasn't a black or white thing, people aren't greedy or not greedy. There are times in retrospect that self serving rationalizations led me to actions that turned out to be greedy. I think the balance between self and others isn't easy. You have to take care of yourself enough so you can take care of others. And often we could do more, we're not on the brink like we think we were. Having children helped me to see that.

So the takeaway from that for me was to try and add a subroutine to my decision making process that asks, "is this self servering rationalizations? And if it's close, you should check it out with other people to make sure you're not taking the not given." I can be sneaky by not asking that question, and that's exactly when I should be asking it.

And I suppose the opposite. I need to ask if I'm being exploited, or if someone is taking advantage of my generosity. Is it truly open handed on my part? When the tank is empty, I need to ask if I really can drive any further without my gas running out, or if I need to pull over and recharge.