Selfish/Selfless

I was speaking with a friend of mine one day. This friend is a verifiable  badass, death machine, fighter, shooter, lifter, hunter, father, husband, athlete, soldier, etcetera.

And with all of that, with all of the attributes that he possesses that make him a capable as hell son of a gun in my book, I had to ask him one day:

What makes someone a real man?

And you know what he said?

" A real man is someone that helps his friends when they need help until they don't need his help anymore. And he should keep helping them before he ever worries about taking care of himself."

And that surprised me. It floored me. And it pleased me and it gave me a feeling of relief that someone such as he would be aware enough to get it and to be a well rounded person who realized that along with his ability to do all of the badass things, that he still has the ability to perhaps do the most baddass thing and that is his ability to be totally selfless. And with all of his experience in life, he has come to realize that his friends are what matters, his brothers in arms.

And it is a lesson, perhaps , for those who want to listen and to now take a deep breath and  let your shoulders relax a little and  just let it go a little or more than a little and stop worrying about yourself.

Hell, man, stop worrying about everything. I am worried right now. Worried about a loved one going into the hospital, worried about my parents getting older, there is always something to worry about.

And what good does it do? Nothing. Doesn't help a damn thing, but I know enough that I won't stop worrying but I will try to do better and that maybe the best thing to do for me and for all of it is to just let go and do or be something selfless, for a better cause, for action against selfishness and action for selflessness.

And I submit that the selflessness has some selfishness in it too, because it makes you feel good when you are helping your friends or family, but thats okay. Go with that feeling and know that it means a whole lot to whom you are helping and nothing wrong with it making you feel good as well.

So maybe that is the answer. Think of others. Ignore yourself and your thoughts. Not sure what we all control anyway. Seems like life just moves on and we all are pretty damn expendable.

 Might as well make somebody feel good as we just hurtle along.