the Greek word for "self," αυτος (autos)

This week has been less easy than other weeks. The mood was set last Saturday by A. and his costume situation that you have already read about. The next day, he began insisting that we all go to the library so that he could look at the internet, but that morning, the house minivan wouldn't start. A. took it upon himself to call every other house in the comunity to ask if we could borrow someone else's van. He had called about half when the electricity and phone line failed ('twas a gloriously windy day; wind that would hit from the front and keep you from taking your next step) so he then insisted that we walk to the houses (through the wind) to ask in person. Of course, no one wanted to lose their vans to us for the afternoon. Every other house trys to go on outings just like us, so no vehicle was available. Defeated, A. stomped back to our house and pouted for a while, quite on the verge of exploding, and then he concluded that the only way to save our day would be to walk to the library. This is not an unpleasant walk, and the wind, although strong, was not frigid, so to save A. the apparent mental distress, I pushed C. out the door, and called N. and J. to come too.
We had a nice time at the library, but the time came to go, and while all of us were standing by the exit, I saw in my periphery A. secretly bounding back to the row of computers. I trotted after and immediatly started in with the, "What do you think you're doing?"'s and he kept responding, "Just le' me," and, "I only wanna." I seized the mouse, closed the application, and began pulling him out of the chair, and he smacked the mouse in retaliation, shoved the chair out of his way and stormed in a fury toward the exit.
And I ask, how is one to feel after two days of giving into the eccentric whims of a person who is hardly capable of gratitude and who throws a tantrum the one time someone doesn't let him have his way? I felt exhausted, helpless, frustrated, and like the work I have chosen for this year is less helping those in need of assistance, but more serving on bended knee those whose rage is the most frightning. A. doesn't even see the nice things you do for him as kindness. He just sees that something he likes has happened, and becomes enraged when it is stopped or taken away.
And K...