Wes and I stopped by a makeup counter at a department store in Charlotte over the weekend. The clerk was a wonderful man, very easy to talk to. After only five minutes, in talking about his job, he voiced an issue I consider often.
“It feels great to make people feel good about themselves,” he said, referring to giving women makeovers. “They leave here happy. But sometimes I think, ‘Come on, lady—there are people starving all over the world, and it takes you twenty minutes to choose a lipstick!’”
This is another expression of the question that underlies my Ironman Coeur d’Alene race report, now posted on my website. Are my actions performed out of self-interest, or am I serving others?