Unlearning

When you were young, they taught you to share,

To give freely to others from what you had,

They taught you not to hit,

Because hurting others was wrong,

And that you could always go to an adult for help

If you could not solve the problem for yourself

If they neglected to teach you how to give to yourself,

And that hurting yourself is wrong and should never be done,

And that sometimes nobody else can help you,

So you must learn to stand up for yourself,

It was only because of the false view of humanity

That decries human beings as inherently selfish

And assumes we already know how to love ourselves well

Clearly, it’s working out so well for our society to keep building on this assumption,

As we attempt to force people to love others that aren’t like them,

But keep ignoring the fact that nobody knows how to love themselves

Because from the moment they were born,

They were taught

That they, being human,

Were inherently selfish and evil:

Whether religion taught us that we were born sinners and unworthy of the basest form of life,

Scientific studies that “proved” that all forms of altruism are ultimately self-serving

and that anyone in any position of power will take over and abuse others,

Cultural norms and values and laws built upon the premise that

Everyone is terrible and must be forced into submission in order to be good…

I believe the most important lesson we can teach our children

Is not how to better love others,

But how to love themselves,

How to give themselves what they need when they need it,

How to stand up for themselves when they’re being ignored or abused,

How not to hurt themselves with their choices and their actions,

I believe from there loving others will come naturally

As we will no longer need to fight another man for our needs to be met

And we won’t have to choose between hurting ourselves or hurting someone else

And we won’t have to rely on someone else to always be solving our problems

Because we will be able to trust ourselves to help ourselves

When our needs arise

From there we can help each other, not out of lack but out of love,

And that will lead to growth

Instead of this constant cycle of destruction

That has plagued humanity for so long

I believe this is the lesson we need to learn as adults,

To unlearn the idea that we are not what we’re supposed to be

And love ourselves completely just as we are,

Namaste, first to myself and then to each of you.