The Reader

"Did [she] ever acknowledge the effect she had on your life?"

"Well, she had done much worse to other people."

Sometimes it amazes me how self centered, how self absorbed we are as people. While those terms have such negative connotations attached to them culturally, I suppose it's no big surprise. We are wired that way. Our lives, our experiences, are the only ones we truly know. We have no choice but to view the world and life through the infinitely minuscule sliver of perspective that is our own existence.

I suppose then that is the value, and the challenge, of things like empathy, and seeing things through the eyes of others.

Is it any wonder we spent so long assuming the sun revolved around the Earth? Deep down we all assume that everyone revolves around us, especially when we sleep.

It's no wonder that my definition of love has evolved the way it has. What in life has value more than stepping out from underneath the veil of "me" that we are all born and live under?