I've been thinking a lot about personalities. My massage therapist once said something interesting about her own mother, which was that for most of her life, she was incredibly giving and selfless to a fault. She always worried about what everyone else needed and did her best to fulfill that.
In the end though, as she grew old, she became one of the most self-centered, bitter and inward people one could imagine.
Maybe this could get chalked up to aging - ailments, adjusting, etc. But I wonder more if it wasn't the pendulum of her personality swinging the other way as a result of spending so much time way to the left of center.
If a person is out of balance, absorbing themselves in anything that doesn't allow for well-roundedness - work, helping people, a marriage, children, working out, etc. - will they eventually reach a breaking point? Will they hit the wall on one side and careen straight into the polar opposite?
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I can see this and with out getting to Zen like, I think the world works on a natural balance. If you swing to one side or the other you will be able to do it for awhile but eventually you have to balance out.
ReplyDeleteWhich I think leads to the example you raised above...I think there are some people out there who you know are just too dang happy (almost as if they are faking it), always seem as if nothing ever bothers them, and everything is always GREAT, not just good but GREAT...or there are the people who do everything for other people (don't get me wrong, this isn't a bad trait, but there must be a balance of caring for yourself and others)...
On the opposite end of the spectrum, there is Scrooge, he was selfish, money grubbing, etc. some people in this world are like Scrooge...but as you can tell by the end of the Christmas Story he had an awakening and his pendulum swung to the other side...to end in a balance.
This may or may not work for everyone, but I tend to think the world will naturally pull things back into balance...and at that true balance you will find happiness...