1120 HRS APRIL 8TH 2007

Looking like a

New Age Messiah,

talking like a heretic.

Making friends feel

they're not whole

and they have no

self worth.

All because

we have not learnt

the inner secrets

of the joys

of loving oneself.

Living on organic food,

and herbal supplements,

drinking resonated water,

saying you're so happy now.

But are you ready?

to be disappointed.

Are you ready?

to be disillusioned.

Are you ready?

to be heartbrokened.

When you wake up one day

and realise

your New Age prophets

were wrong

all this while,

and your grandmother

was right.

Darling, what does it take

just what does it take,

to make you realise,

no one deserves the right

to say

you're not whole?

We are creations

of God,

and God does not

make mistakes.

Parcelled in each

and every one of us

is a perfect gift

to Humankind.

We're all whole people,

in our own special

and unique ways.

Not everybody

can feel good

by quasi laws

of attraction

casually derived

form quantum mechanics.

Maybe it works for some

but certainly not

for all.

I grew up

in the 70s,

when this notion

of self love

was born.

It started

in 1977,

when a movie

of the life

of the greatest boxer

of all time,

Muhummad Ali.

And the title track

was

"Greatest Love of All".

And the catch phase was

"Learning to love yourself,

is the greatest love

of all"

I've seen the New Age prophets

of my time,

preaching the good news

of loving yourself.

I've seen seminars

and workshops,

where people pay money

to cry their eyeballs out

to learn self-love.

Self-love is good,

when you do not allow

yourself the indignity

of doing something

morally wrong.

But I've seen this idea

of self-love mutate

into something horrible

and dangerous even.

I've seen self-love

taken to the extreme

and transmute into

narcissistic

self interests

self preservations

self centredness.

I've seen self love

destroy families

devastate careers.

I'm sorry.

I'm an old man

who suscribe

to old fashioned values

of our grandparents,

where life on earth,

involves a very

self-sacrificial aspect,

where you dedicate

your very existence

for the betterment

of others.

In a world

and a life

where the love you get

is the love you give.