Do you get back what you give?

Good article!
I know it’s going to sound like I’m patting myself on the back, but I do really try to smile and speak to everyone I pass at my job. I work in a hospital, so there is a lot of pain and grief. I want to try to give a smile to everyone.

Human beings explored these questions during what historians call the Axial Age, about 900–200 BC. The conclusion at that time was that humans can only be truly human if they are compassionate and generous. The ideas have come and gone since then. The problem in our time is that politicians have decided that compassion and generosity have to be imposed by government and not by human choice. Fuck ‘em them for stealing the message.
We can make the choice without their greedy self serving ambitions for wealth and power.
It is in the human nature to be so. It is them that screws it up. Not you and me.

I treat other the way I want to be treated. That’s how I live my life. I can’t ask others to treat me nicely if I’m not nice.

But sometimes the ways I want to be treated don’t work so well with others, and that lead to some troubles :p

~if I treated others the way I would be treated I would be in jail.

I think I do get back what I put in. It’s not necessarily in the same format or from the people I ‘gave’ to, but life rewards me in various ways. I work with a lot of people that I will never meet. I always try to remember the human and I’m rewarded indirectly by watching them achieve their goals. Directly I have received formal awards and rewards, but often the rewards may come through a thank you, or indirectly through comments made to me by others about the effect I’ve had on others. Such occasions never fail to surprise me. I also love my family and they never fail to make me feel loved and special. I do believe we get back what we put in but as I said, the rewards may sometimes come from a very different place to the one we expect.

Empathy, unconditional positive regard, genuineness, I try and give to all.

I rarely succeed. That bothers me.

I notice it in return even less. That doesn’t bother me so much.

Donut unto others as you would they donut unto to you is my philosophy.

Absolutely I do, common courtesy & polished manners is the only way to go, i’m a good boy I am.

I do not know, honestly. I have been totally numb emotionally and physically since the January of 2014. And just know I surprise myself with preciseness.

Sometimes I get back much more than what I’ve given. There have been some days where everything in life seemed bad and I had been in such a negative state of mind I was less than friendly to a cashier or two. But some of those cashiers kept their friendly faces and didn’t allow my scowl to bring down their spirit. So, no I don’t always get back what I give and I’m thankful for that.

One particular time really stands out in my mind. I had just gotten done with a big argument at home and I left to clear my mind. I drove to the nearby convenience store to pick up some soda and I was still angry and my nerves were crazy. When I went up to the counter to cash out, the cashier was so friendly I couldn’t help but be kind in return. It started out with me faking a smile and nodding but by the end of our conversation, I realized how much better I felt. I was genuinely laughing with her. She complimented my shirt’s beading and explained that in her culture they actually hand make things like that. I got lost in her interesting story and forgot I had even been upset when I walked into that store. I hope I can do the same some day and help a distraught person forget their problems even for a moment.

What cool timing for this question. I just watched something that described “ubuntu” (not the software company, but the actual meaning): “I am what I am because of who we all are”. The person (Chris Abani) was talking about how the only way to be human is to have our humanity reflected back at us.

I am often pessimistic, but I try, as hard as I possibly can, to avoid treating anyone badly. I enjoy making people smile, helping them in whatever ways I can. Even holding doors open for people in public spaces makes a big difference in people’s days sometimes. No one ever expects it, at all anymore, so as much as it makes me feel good to see that I’ve made a very small gesture of kindness, it also makes me a little sad sometimes about how surprised people are by it. There’s a stupid sappy commercial that was playing on TV at some point, about people “paying it forward”, and I think it would be completely awesome if stuff like that actually happened.