Mothers Devouring Their Children

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/82/Francisco_de_Goya%2C_Saturno_devorando_a_su_hijo_%281819-1823%29.jpg Follow the above link. That's a picture by Goya entitled "Saturn Devouring His Son." Have you ever thought of yourselves as someone like this Saturn? No? Are you sure you won't ever sacrifice your boyfriend or girlfriend, lover, spouse, or lover? Are you sure you won't? Then give yourselves time. Wait a decade, two decades, or three. There may come a time when something happens, obliging you to choose between destroying your own sanity and sacrificing the one you love — or claim to love. You may have believed you're a loving person who can't ever betray the one you love — or the one you believe you love. But look. The love you claim to have and have cherished all your life may be just a pipe dream. It may be just a castle on sand, or a hologram. The love you claim to have may be just an illusion. It may be only a reflection of your own selfishness. To survive in this cesspool of a world, you just have to be healthily selfish. True, you shouldn't be downright selfish. If you are, people will hate you and you'll end up leading a solitary, lonely life. But that doesn't mean you're completely selfless. Absolute selflessness is totally incompatible with this hellish world. To survive here, you just have to maintain a reasonable degree of selfishness. That's what I call "healthy selfishness." So, people of the world, be healthily selfish. If there comes a time when you have to choose between maintaining your own life or sanity and sacrificing the one you love (or claim to love), you'll certainly choose to maintain your life or sanity before you know it. That's the way you're programmed to do. The genes in your body compel you to do so. So don't worry. You'll surely sacrifice your child or lover whom you always thought you were ready to sacrifice your own life for. Long live your healthy selfishness! And may Heaven bless your self-love eternally!