In a recent conversation I was having regarding community living the discussion took a turn for the interesting when the person I was speaking with, one living in a small community setting of about 15 people, made the following comment, “Out of 15 of us, not even 2 have the same goals.” He then expounded on his own goals which were, “…to live life, be successful and contribute to helping make the world a better place.” As I pondered his words I couldn’t help but think something was a little off, then I thought about Ego vs. ego. This isn’t a take on Freud and it is no more based on neuroscience than Freud’s theory regarding id, ego and superego. It’s quite simple really. The Ego, with a capital letter “E” represents what we do that is driven by our desire to impress others while what is driven by ego, with a lower case “e” are things we do to connect with others. Intent comes into play and of course there are fine lines as there are with many things. For the sake of keeping this piece moving however, I will go back to the conversation about community living and use these bits of it as an example to illustrate my point.
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I am the Walrus. Archives
July 2016
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