Experience Is The Best Teacher

The podcast that I chose to listen to was one by Jimmy Dale Gilmore, a more or less country singer/songwriter, entitled "All the Joy The World Contains." (this is the url -> http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4538138" ) In his podcast he explained how through much of his life he went around basically feeling sorry for himself and feeling like the state of the world was to blame for his rough life. It was'nt until he hit the lowest of all the low points in his life where he was faced with two options: change, or death, that "my own gratification as the guiding principle" of his life was what was keeping him stuck in this cycle of sex, alcohol, and depression. He says "It came as a great shock to discover that my problem wa not a product of the worlds condition but that of my own self-centeredness" and that "genuine concern for the welfare of others is the gateway to the only real satisfaction for myself." I found his success story inspiring and most of all reassuring that even in todays dog eat dog world, there are people like Jimmy Dale Gilmore who can put the well being of others before their own. He ended with a Native American proverb " all the joy the world contains has come through wishing happiness for others. All the misery the world contains has come through wanting pleasure for oneself."