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Self-Love Isn’t The Answer

I think there’s a better solution to a real problem.

Eric Forseth
4 min readMay 6, 2021
photo courtesy of Hala Al-Asadi on Unsplash

But I could be wrong. I’ve been wrong before.

Like when I was 25 I met a delightful girl whom I shared dinner with at a Perkins Restaurant. She was energetic, funny and had a wonderful smile. I had the chicken tender melt, she ate pancakes, and as our meal concluded I found out she was 17. I bought her and her mother a pie, walked her home and felt strange for two days.

These things happen. I was mistaken. It wouldn’t be the last time I was wrong.

I could be wrong about my thoughts about self-love and its place in society. However, all the words written about “how to love yourself” could fill the Death Star. The answer to many-a-problem today: love yourself! How? Read a thousand blog posts! Then read a hundred books! Then read the manual about how to read the book about how to love yourself!

I’m not opposed to loving oneself. Yes, we should love ourselves. But with all the weight it’s given, it feels like a hollow, dead end answer to a painful problem that might need a sustained solution—not a daily shot of morphine.

Thought 1: a cup can’t fill itself.
Love, the word, is a verb. It’s an action. It’s not a feeling. In my experience, the more I’ve loved, the more I’ve received love…

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Eric Forseth
Eric Forseth

Written by Eric Forseth

I like writing so I write. I dabble in humor, fiction, short stories, observations and things I’ve learned.

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