Oh! Ego.

This afternoon, at about half past two, I saw a fire engine rushing someplace with its siren blaring, certainly in response to someone's appeal to put out a fire. Anyone would have thought all vehicles would move to the side, slow down and allow it to overtake so that it could speed to its destination. Disgusted was a little mild the feeling I had for the particular driver of a black car going as fast as possible to keep itself just in front of the fire engine. There was one point when the fire engine appeared to want to overtake the car but was unable to do so. Seems like the driver of that black car did not understand the urgency of having the fire engine arrive at the scene of any fire as quickly as possible to save whatever could still be saved. What a horrible guy or gal that was to refuse to give way to a fire engine. Was it ignorance of the work of such a vehicle? That is hardly possible in this age. If not, it must be the ego of the driver. But the driver must also have nerves of steel to be able to carry on thus despite the loud sound blaring from that fire engine just behind him/he.

Talking about ego I remember the few times I did encounter drivers who would drive slowly along the road, refusing to give way to others who wish to go faster and move ahead. I was one of those who had to reach a destination by a certain time and there was this slow thirty kilometers per hour driver who was going in the middle of a very narrow road which was just sufficient for two vehicles to pass each other. Although there was no oncoming vehicle, I had no alternative but to crawl along at that ridiculously slow pace or risk landing in a ditch or drain. The honking of my horn had no effect on the front driver and since I have grown more civilised, I surrendered to the circumstances of the moment and turned to the practice of patience. In my hot-headed, hot-blooded younger days I would have at least shouted angrily at the guy or gal. Well, it is difficult to defeat a man's or woman's ego. Furthermore, the situation could bring him/her, me or both of us to some kind of problem just over some person's ego. Would that be worth it? Obviously not!

I have told about how my own ego almost got me into deep trouble. The ego has to be under our control for otherwise it could cause us to be too stubborn to see the stupidity of being involved in such a egocentric act. Yes, the ego usually gets us into some kind of selfish thoughts that do not bring any benefit.

But then, that is not exactly true for we do need the ego and a little selfishness to bring about progress and development to ourselves. Ego, properly handled is essential to right actions, to put oneself in a position in which others look at us with some respect. Thus, ego has its role to play but for it to be beneficial there must be discipline. We should control it and not let it control us or lead us into stupid unnecessary situations which bring problems rather than benefits.

Thus, we must have ego but we must learn to have the discipline to use it correctly, handling it like your pet dog, getting it to calm down and sit tight in certain circumstances and giving it full reign when it aids our creativity and development.

So ego, like most things, have two sides just like a coin.