Lucy,
A good week on Cape San Blas, but also nice to be back in Austin. Above photo with Uncle Chip in Apalachicola.
Taylor and I exchanged emails this morning, and the topic of Egotistical Utilitarianism came up from the Matthew McConaughey podcast last week. Here’s how McConaughey explains it:
That’s what Jesus was up to. Making decisions. That’s the honey hole of when we can succeed or have satisfaction or live life the most truest.
Where the decisions we make for the I, for ourselves, the selfish decisions, are actually what’s best for the most amount of people, utilitarian. Where the I meets the we. Where the selfish is the selfless, where what I need is what I want. And what I want is the ego. What I need is the utilitarian. What I want is freedom. What I need is the responsibility and the interplay of those things. Where the I is the ego and utilitarian is the objective, utilitarian we.
But I was like, “Oh, that’s the ultimate human, the egotistical utilitarian,” where the decision one makes for themselves, most selfishly, happened to be the most selfless decisions as well at the same time. And where those two overlap and are one, that’s the ultimate human, that was the pursuit.
Is this kin to my favorite quote from Covey?
“When you engage in a work that taps your talent and fuels your passion — that rises out of a great need in the world that you feel drawn by conscience to meet — therein lies your voice, your calling, your soul’s code.”
What do you think?
Dad
