Humility...

Humility is the act of "you-first" versus the "me-first" attitude.  This is something I am trying to be better at, and on the eve of Thanksgiving is perfect for writing about.  To be a you-first person goes against our biology.  Our evolution has lasted through the ages by chance, luck, but most importantly by our selfishness. Our genetic makeup, genes, are designed for one reason to duplicate itself and it will do whatever it can to make this happen. We are genetically selfish creatures and to defy ones biology for another is why the practice of humility is so virtuous.  Questions arise when I think of this. If we are made to be selfish creatures then is the act of humility a wasted effort? Or is the practice of humility just another trick up the gene's sleeve?
Humanity has flourished not only by the selfishness of our genes, but also by being social creatures. Our ancestors needed the community for survival. We are hunter/gathers and hunting is a skill that also has a lot of luck.  The problem with hunting is once you obtain a kill, what do you do with the meat? You can not possibly eat all the food in one sitting, and without refridgeration the meat would spoil.   The solution is you would feed your neighbors meat from your kill today and in return when they would get a kill they would do the same for you. This was a way we started humility and the way we started community. We could not have survived without helping our neighbors or them helping us.  Not only is the act of humility necessary for each of our survival it also makes us feel good. We could never have thrived if we didn't learn to do for others...

The act of humility feeds our consciousness with a sense of well being.  Our consciousness is what drives our thoughts and feelings, and to feed virtues to our consciousness will in turn feed our thoughts and emotions with positivity. If given a choice most of us would choose to be around a positive person who is upbeat and fun versus a negative person who drags on and complains on end.  So does humility really act in ways that our genes want it to?  If the practice of humility increases the chances to have more people around us, since humility feeds us with positivity and people want to be around positivity,  then the more people we are around the better odds of propagating our genes. So do females find humility in males, and do they find this attractive?  So in reality is humility a slave to the selfish genes? There are some that say there are no good deeds, because people do things out of selfishness.  Mother Teresa is only selfless because it makes her feel good, and without her getting satisfaction from this she would cease her selflessness. Maybe it is our genes acting selfless, out of a selfish manner. Maybe there are no truly good deeds, but is that what is important?

I do not know if the act of humility is the genes way of getting us to reproduce, but I do know that I will practice humility because I want to be a positive person. I want to be a person who others want to be around and who want to strike up a conversation with out of the blue.  I am trying to clean all of the negativity out of my consciousness.  The choice of positivity is ours and if humility is a bold step towards this direction then why not choose it.  We are social creatures and without our neighbors our existence would be strife and short lived. What I have learned about this is that even today when we are around people we do not think that they have any impact on our lives, but in reality they do.  Their job, their work brings in "meat" to the community and enriches our lives. Those people who cut me off, who aggravate me in line, or those people who just, and the ones that I think I would have nothing in common with, I am truly thankful, for if it wasn't for your sacrifices I would not enjoy some of the benefits our community has.  It is quite humbling actually...