Nothing wrong in being selfish

It���s probably apocryphal but the story goes that once when Abraham Lincoln ��� then a young lawyer riding the circuit with others of his profession ��� was travelling between towns he came across a pig hopelessly stuck in the mud. The more the animal struggled to get free, the more it mired itself in and was sure to die of thirst or starvation ultimately.

They say the future 16th President of the United States was wearing a new suit he hadn���t owned for very long and, as such, most thoughts of compassion or rescue were not really on the front burner of his priorities right then. However, apparently he couldn���t get the pig out of his head and after a while doubled back and helped it out.


Now honest Abe definitely doesn���t need a latter day 21st century makeover by any columnist but it���s still worth noting what he���s supposed to have reflected on about his motives for executing such compassion. At first he thought he���d rescued the pig just because he was a nice guy. With a little more deliberation, though, he came to the conclusion he���d done it out of pure selfishness. As he later is said to have told a friend, he���d gone back to free the pig to ���take a pain out of his mind.���

The difference between the child beggar dirtying the door window of our car at a traffic signal which most of us ignore, wish away or forget as soon as the lights green out is that Lincoln let it linger.

Those of us ��� and there are many ��� who actually roll the glass down and deliver a couple of coins into the grubby palm would find it difficult to admit why we do so ��� especially if we���ve got well-fed kids in the back seat. At the same time it���s also true that, basically, the sight is a pain. Whether we deliver or not, we don���t let it last long; we don���t let it linger.

Importantly, neither did Lincoln. He didn���t dedicate the rest of his life to saving animals in distress. That���s because when he lived he had all sorts of other pains to take ���out of his mind��� which required the selfish motivation of somehow getting rid of them.

And he did to the best of his abilities. Those who do it ���selflessly��� are actually doing the same thing because they can���t bear the thought of living while they see suffering and anguish in the world. It pains them. Some are even enlightened people who turn back from a guaranteed personal salvation to help others because of selfish motives. The truth is, if one is truthful to oneself, at least a millionth of the battle is won.