True or False?

[hummingwolf]

The true value of a sacrifice is not measured in cash. The value of the sacrifice depends upon its worth to the person who makes the offering. If you believe you are worthless, then all your self-sacrifice is meaningless. It is as if you, seeing a beggar on the street, give him the change you had in your hand after buying a candy bar at the convenience store, money you might have dropped on the sidewalk and not bothered to pick up. It may be true that you are not selfish, but you cannot be called generous if you give only what you do not value. Only when you value yourself will you have anything to offer to anyone else. Only when you value yourself can you act with love.

Comments

Re: Not really

[hummingwolf.livejournal.com]

There are several assumptions in the post that I'm not at all sure I agree with (actually more than one I'm pretty sure I don't agree with), which is kinda why the subject line was "True or False?"

there is also generosity when it doesn't involve sacrifice if the person didn't have to do it in the first place

Yes. You asked what the story is behind the musing, and there really isn't one story. It's just that a bunch of friends and acquaintances have been revealing some of the assumptions they live by recently, and I found myself trying to follow the assumptions to some kind of conclusion. One of the assumptions I've come across is that love isn't love if it doesn't involve sacrifice, that "If you really loved me, you'd give up X, Y, and Z for me (even though I don't exactly need them to survive myself)." I tend to believe that a willingness to deny our own needs in order to focus on someone else is an expression of a high form of love, but I can't believe it's something anyone has any right to expect on a daily basis.