Your Unifier Allies

My people looked down upon selfishness. Status and respect were earned through generous giving and personal sacrifice, not through self-centered accumulating and individual achievement. From the moment I could hold something in my hands, I learned to give it away. On birthdays, I gave gifts to my guests. When participating in ceremony, I gave gifts to my teacher and those around me. When I became a young woman, I served my family willingly and without complaint. But there were times when I was expected to give, and I felt taken advantage of and disrespected. Even though I felt angry and resentful inside, I gave anyway. Because that’s what good community members did. Sometimes I found myself giving because I secretly wanted something from someone else—their respect, their love, their admiration, their gratitude.

Once, I worked for several days preparing a meal for the whole village, when what I really wanted to be doing was swimming in the river with my brothers. My self-sacrifice seemed to go unnoticed and unappreciated. Without realizing it, I pounded my frustrations into the tortillas that I made. When some of the villagers got ill

after the meal, I felt just horrible. As I was about to confess to the elders that my self-centered heart had poisoned the food, my grandmother—a master gardener—stood up and told the community that she hadn’t properly tended to the corn, and that the belly aches were her fault. Then she winked at me and pointed me in the direction of the river. That evening, as I floated and looked up at the moon, I realized that my grandmother had taught me the meaning of true Altruism.