Looking Beyond Self

Self-promotion is the hobby and serious business of some in our society, and they would go all the way to make their presence felt, in their social circles, in the wider society, and every other person they come in touch with is roped in to promote the former's interests and designs. No, I am not talking in abstract terms, I have a very specific person in mind. It is not that I do not dare to disclose the name of the person, but would not defame him (and as a result defame myself!) in public. And it is not hard to find such persons around us.

Over the years, I had realised that so long I am absorbed within myselfmy concerns, my narrow world, I am blind to the world outside of me. The beautiful world outside of me is yet another tortuous reality, I try to run away from, and the safest niche I find for self is the inner self; to ruminate the numerous designs to feel safe and secure, not letting anyone in the world know the ever-lasting deep emptiness I am floating. It is my world, my dreams, my people, and often I become an "I" specialist.

Once I wanted to do a small experiment for myself... it may sound a bit silly, but I thought it was a brilliant exercise. I wanted to become aware of the sentences in my normal conversation with people, when I had used the pronoun "I"; the second step, which I wanted to do was, to consciously replace the "I" with "we". To be frank, it is not all that easy to do that. I had realised that I had used the world "I" far too many times... Yes, you are right! Just count the number of times "I" had been used in this very paragraph : if you are correct, it is 11. But I have a reason to use it here, to present my own case study.

Have you ever wondered what makes these people to be engrossed within themselves? At least for me, it is just a conscious act of covering the inadequacy, the emptiness that one feels deep within. It is a deliberate act of showing to the world that they are far more important than what the world thinks, that they are far more capable of things than the society knows. So they go on from one experiment to another, in a frantic attempt to "prove" to the world that they are made of sterner stuff, of what mettle they are made of.

The people who are self-contended and love life and apprciate the bounty of nature (call it God!), look beyond their selves... their concern is on the other person. They would be engrossed in the welfare of the people, often foregoing their personal wants, interests and even welfare. Thank God, we still have people who belong to this category, and that is one of the reason why we find humanity has not perished. Today I hear a call from within to look beyond my nose, as a popular saying would go, and find fulfilment. If I can see a beauty within me, I will be able to look at the world with the same eyes, and find beauty all around me.