Loving one’s self not a bad thing; Being in love with one’s self causes problems
By Samuel Rose
Skiff Staff

Do you love yourself?

Yes dear readers, it is a trick question. It is one that I myself am often incapable of answering.

However, recent observations of the world around me made me conjure up a picture of what the world would be like if people truly loved themselves.

The stone that most people trip on after they embark upon this journey of life is often the very first stone on the pathway: loving oneself. It is often confused for being in love with oneself. But, in fact, upon closer examination they look nothing alike except for a resemblance in syntax.
“What is wrong with being in love with yourself?” Everything.

Being in love with oneself leads to self-worship, a dangerous characteristic often found in cahoots with selfishness, indulgence, obsession, greed and dishonesty. Sometimes we are so dishonest that we even lie to ourselves and are unable to view our world and our tiny place in it objectively.

I see so much evidence of this when I see people craving to “improve their looks” with plastic surgery, or ravaging their bodies to get thin (because it’s “in”) or pumping up with steroids (because it’s “in”). But this love of oneself transcends the individual and takes on forms such as world dominance and imperialism because we love ourselves so much, we feel that everyone else in the world (despite their cultures and traditions) should be like us.

Some use means such as terrorism to establish this dominance. Others use embargoes on food, medicine and trade, to impose their love of themselves on others.

However the same culprit is at the root … being in love with oneself. It’s ironic how quickly we can point it out in those we do not like or view as enemies.

Being in love with ourselves is killing us, one way or the other. Even as we continue to live this lie and seek to satisfy our indulgent cravings, we still at some point must face the undeniable truth of who we are and take a deep long look at ourselves. And how awful we look.

We still aren’t thin enough; we still aren’t strong enough; we still aren’t as beautiful enough, rich enough, powerful enough, dominant enough.

Then we stand there holding on to the meaningless bits of matter that we misnamed “the important things in our lives,” recognizing for the first time that we had it wrong the entire time.

As Shakespeare once said, “This above all: To thine own self be true.”
But where can honesty and love truly meet and coalesce? The answer is when we truly love ourselves.

Please join again tomorrow for part two of this commentary.

Samuel Rose is a senior social work major from the Cayman Islands, British West Indies. He can be contacted at (s.j.rose@student.tcu.edu).

credits

TCU Daily Skiff © 2002