"I wanna talk about.... you?"

       Relaxing with a couple friends and a glass of beer the other night, someone started humming a Toby Keith tune (which in my convoluted mind brought back into that part of the brain that continually retains the lyrics and tunes to songs for indefinite periods of time) the words to another Toby Keith song; "I Wanna Talk about Me". Bascially, if you have not experienced this ditty, the basic gist is a man frustrated with talking about the, shopping, gossip, and clothes of, dare we presume his wife, and he wants to talk about me, my, number one. While the song is truly catchy, humorous even, it seems to me that it gives a particular insight into perhaps the single most disturbing issue of our modern era. It is not that people are selfish, that is news almost as old as human existence, but rather that this selfishness is glorified in our culture.

       In the first year or so of our current President's term of office his wife was asked about motherhood and what is most important. Her response at first glance might strike some as deeply profound yet a closer look might reveal something quite disturbing just as the formerly mentioned song. She answered the question, if my memory serves me well, that it is most important for a mother to take care of herself first, take time off, pamper herself, so that she does not end up being another burnout mother like the painted character of a pre-feminism movement woman of America. 

       If one's first inclination is to look inward, it shows a certain prioritization. Usually that which is most important is addressed first and everything else follows after. Those things both important and urgent are generally given the highest priority and dealt with prior to those necessities of lesser importance. Both the President's wife and Toby Keith illustrate albeit unintentionally this theme I find so disturbing; the public affirmation and even glorification of selfishness. The world today says what is important is that we give ourselves first priority... just a thought, but it does not seem to me like Toby Keith, Michelle Obama, or Patrick Jacobeen at the center of the universe is a good idea. In fact, I am fairly certain that any human at the center of things is a bad idea if only because of our frail, limited natures. I imagine that the center of life, the heart of culture ought to be found outside of an individual and that individuals in fact exist not for their own good but for something outside themselves. Perhaps I ought to write a song titled, "I wanna talk about you" to change the focus from a self interest or self obsession to an attitude of giving. I think within everyone there is a sense, and inkling whether understood or not, that it is best to give of one's self rather than to take.