I agree with you in principle HD, as (mostly) always. There's a thing called sacred selfishness that I sort of subscribe to. It kind of means that one must nurture oneself a little, to become, or feel, more centred and in control. What that nurtutring is depends on the individual. Some may go to the spa, others may curl up with a coffee, gingerbread and a good book and others may go shooting. It doesn't matter what it is as long as that person feels better doing it; Or, happy, content, valuable, refreshed...Whatever one calls it.

That person can then re-enter society (their immediate life) and be a little better for it, more productive etc. Does that make sense? It's sort of like caring for oneself a little to be better placed to do so for others and other aspects of their life like job commitments for example.

Imagine a single mother with two kids grinding it out all day to care for and provide for the kids, pay the bills etc. She may have little time for herself. A little sacred selfishness applied in this case and maybe she's refreshed and ready to start all over again. That may be in the form of a grandparent taking the kids for a day to allow her some space, or just some quiet time when the kids are asleep, time in which she ignores all the chores and takes time for herself. Just an example.

Of course, there is the other side of selfishness where a person acts in a pro-themselves way at the detriment to others as you mention. You know, greed is a good example.

I think the word itself gets somewhat misconstrued; People hear selfish and automatically think to the negative however it's not always so.

Good, thought-provoking, post here HD and I believe that applied correctly selfishness has its degree of value.

I love this line...

Think about it, if you feel unloved, hungry, thirsty, horny, tired and so on, your mind will be on that need. You will zombie through your day, without really seeing the people around you.

Sounds like me sometimes.