I, me, my, mine, and myself at the Center of the World
Individualistic values are on a rise in every part of the world. Cola company came with the personalized name as part of their multi-million $ add campaign. Today's world comes with many other personalized gadgets and personalized programs. My Cellphone, my calendar, my favorites, my music, my picture, my shipping cart, my document, my personalized learning, my gym etc. Sometimes I wonder why all around me a world look like I, me, my, myself, mine.
When a child is born in a new family, he or she gets all the attention and the child tend to feel he or she is at the center. While growing up you will realize that you are not at the center but you are part of the family system.
Growing up in India, I lived and shared the only room for many years with two of my siblings and my parents was not always I, me, my, myself and mine. It was a shared experience even when the social and personal involvement of other adults, not only the relatives but also neighbors and friends do not give you the privacy required or the luxury of the western culture.
French philosopher Rene Descartes outlined: “Now, if I were independent of all other existence, and were myself the author of my being…I should have given myself all those perfections of which I have some idea, and I should thus be God.” In other words, if I were truly independent, if the world truly revolves around me, why should I find in myself any imperfection at all? Is it not then irrational to live as if I am the center of the world? This was also an intentional confirmation about the existence of God.
The ancient understanding predicted earth was at the center of the universe until 16th century Nicholas Copernicus pointed out that the earth revolved around the sun. This made the sun at the new center. I am sure none of us believes that today. There is some other center for the solar system and it is beyond what we understood formally.
Theologians try to understand Christ as the center or in other words, followed Christo-centric principle as an approach to biblical interpretation. The way of interpreting scripture primarily from the perspective of what Jesus taught and modeled and from what he revealed concerning the nature and character connected to God. The attempt here is to understand the methodological and hermeneutical rule or as a doctrine or as a way of life based on Jesus Christ at the center. There are many other framework in which we can understand or follow our hermeneutical rules such as theo-centric, soterio-centric, eco-centric, pneumato-centric, anthropo-centric, ecclesio-centric etc.
Be yourself because the original has more worth than a duplicate. On the contrary narcissistic personality of having an excessive or erotic interest in oneself or one's physical appearance is consider just like borderline personality disorder or antisocial behavior. There are many synonyms through which we can understand the exclusive nature of self-loving, self-admiring, self-observed, self-obsessed, self-centered, egotistic etc.
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