We don’t wake up in the morning thinking that

we’re going to be selfish and inconsiderate today.

And yet, throughout the day, we act selfishly in so many ways. We don’t answer a coworker’s email, although we know he’s waiting for our response. We postpone a trip to the library to return a best seller, a popular book with readers. We go shopping with one friend forgetting that we had told another we’d go with her.

Here’s another thought we don’t wake up with: I’m going to make someone suffer today.

And yet, that’s what we often do. We turn up the air conditioning to stay comfortable. But cooling ourselves this way contributes to global warming. This causes soil erosion on the other side of the world. Worried farmers are told that global warming is the culprit, but they have no means to stop it.

We tend busily to our affairs and forget our friend in the nursing home who enjoys such visits.

We get trapped by our habits, our personal inertia, our wish for personal comfort. We don’t mean to be selfish or unkind. But too often, we end up being so.