Concern for the downtrodden

I’d like to dive into the warm waters of altruism but not just to glow with goodness but to float in a nice mix of both selfish and unselfish reasoning. To float buoyantly in the knowing of the reason for my concern. I’d like to know that this ‘mix’ could be a valuable source of strength which I’d need to maintain my concern. And that would be always there as a springboard for my decision to act. Yes, concern for animals enslaved, yes, concern for myself in my intent to support them. It’s a reciprocal scheme - they provide me with a celebrated cause and in return I provide them with whatever support I have to offer. So, behind any act of altruism is my own need to feel the power of it in me. I want to show my concern by doing something quite dramatic, extreme and radical, something inconvenient but ultimately challenging.
It sounds pretty good doesn’t it. But how do I know I can keep up that mood, that drive, that intention? Some days it’s possible that I might NOT want to dive into these ‘warm waters’ but just carry on as usual, with no act, no reason to act, no change in my life.
Where am I now? Am I feeling advanced and self developed or untouched by all that? Surely there are two sides of me - the side which identifies with the ideal, the other side aligned to the do-nothing in me. I fluctuate between these two sides all the time, some days feeling very empowered other days bored by that goal - optimistic one day, pessimistic the next.
Overall, the warmth of the waters of altruism are attractive, not in terms of being ultimately good but in the cure-all of altruism, the mix-form of it, balanced between the selfish and unselfish. It’s worth trying out. I know in the past I’ve behaved badly and still do perhaps. Unless I consciously move away from bad behaviour my imagination will never be sparked and nothing will happen. As soon as I decide to act, to move myself along, I might just see how others have decided to go that way. I look at those involved in environmental consciousness raising. It’s led them into new daily habits that seem to feed back to help them grow, even very rapidly. And that’s percolated down to all of us, so that we all, these days, are thinking ‘environment’ much more than we ever used to. They’ve empathised with the beauty of the environment and want to conserve it. That’s how many of us feel about the beauty of the animals.
Awakening that consciousness might seem slow, perhaps because most of us are still not near enough to the starting line. Some, however, have poked their noses out of their burrows and noticed the need for a big change of outlook. They’ve rubbed the sleep out of their eyes and a determination has formed, to move away from the old attitudes, to not continue doing whatever one feels like doing. To move away from feelings of entitlement. To move away from being destructive and dominating. To have the courage to ignore competition and stop trying to outdo other advantage-takers. To look at life altruistically, for the greater good, but with a nice mix that doesn’t preclude selfish needs.