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Topic: Altruism
RainbowTrout's photo
Sat 01/19/08 02:51 PM
I am finding that out from the place I work. The pay sucks but I am happy helping others.

no photo
Sat 01/19/08 02:58 PM
never shortchange yourself, and i don't mean by money alone!

Abracadabra's photo
Sat 01/19/08 03:01 PM
money cannot buy happiness


That’s a truly empty cliché that people say all the time but where’s their evidence for it?

Money can indeed buy health. And health can certainly contribute to happiness.

Money can indeed by food, and food can contribute to happiness. Let’s not forget all the other protection from the elements that money can buy.

Money can even buy the opportunity to meet people that you would otherwise be unable to meet. If those relationships grew into love and happiness, then money contributed directly to making them possible. So in a very real sense money basically bought that happiness.

I think what is true is that money cannot guarantee happiness.

That is s true statement.

But to say that money can’t buy happiness is really a broken cliché that has no merit at all.

What about the other end of the rainbow?

Are you guaranteed happiness if you have no money?

I don’t think so. I think you’ll have a much better chance at finding happiness with money than without it.

And in that sense, money can indeed buy happiness.

no photo
Sat 01/19/08 03:02 PM
it helps

Abracadabra's photo
Sat 01/19/08 03:04 PM
I might add also,…

They always say that the best things in life are FREE!

What they fail to tell you is that those things are also always OUT OF STOCK!

laugh

no photo
Sat 01/19/08 03:08 PM
money is just a trick they threw in there abra, lol, don't believe they got you!

no photo
Sat 01/19/08 03:20 PM
or sold you

RainbowTrout's photo
Sun 01/20/08 06:03 AM
Sorry, I got distracted; I had to go to work. Work sometimes interferes with my social life and at other times it is my social life. Sometimes since I work in the caring profession I have to ask myself if I am doing this for the money or for the pleasure it gives me in helping some people. I guess I have to admit is a bit of both. I get so many benefits. I get to meet new people because of the traffic of new people starting and then quitting. I sure have stretched the level of the comfort zone. I have almost burnt out at times though. I would think people who do volunteer work or who raise families would more altrustic but still being a part of something much greater than you would reap rewards, too. I guess you just put yourself out there and people can either take it or leave it. I think at times that love can be altruistic.

Abracadabra's photo
Sun 01/20/08 01:11 PM
I think my love has always been altruistic and that’s why I never married. bigsmile

no photo
Sun 01/20/08 01:31 PM
good excuse abra

Abracadabra's photo
Sun 01/20/08 01:35 PM

good excuse abra


One time I advertised for a Bag Lady on the forums. I was surprised by how many women were actually offended by that.

It's a strange world indeed. drinker

no photo
Sun 01/20/08 01:39 PM
love u abra

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Sun 01/20/08 01:57 PM
lol, perfect display

MindOfChrist's photo
Sun 01/20/08 05:57 PM
I often would ask others if there were any that truly wanted to live in this manner. To me it is not that one should advance over another, (of choice a mindset of choice rather than concept) that we all would move forward together,; that we do not watch out after ourselves as an individual but that we see ourselves as a unit, as one.

There are many teachings in the NT that support this also. I am not trying to make this religious, but that this stirs a part of me and the sort of life that I wish to live. In acts in talks about no one saw his possessions as his own. Paul wrote that those who gather much share with those who gather little so that there would be an equality. Even Jesus taught that if we have more than what we need to share with those who do not have what they need.

I think we are often misquided by our own self-interested ways, that if we worked together for the good of all that we could evolve to a higher way of life. Our self-intereest causes us to waste, to horde, to oppress, to destroy our environment, and often to take advantage of others so that we can benefit form their loss. Our society tofocuses on people as indiviuals and that is how most see themselves, yet we are really part of a whole. Yet who we really are is not who we are by ourselves but that my identity is really who I am as a part of the whole. The most important aspect of myself is not who I am to myself but what I am able to give and to offer to others.

Maybe the whole root of this is love, for unconditional love does not require anything in return but is given as a gift, freely to another. The true nature of self is selfless, it does not seek its own, it wish good and no harm or voilence to others. It does not act rudely, does not get irrate, it stands by, beleive in, and supports others.

This topic is actually not so much about theory, but about a way of life, maybe somehow we could head in this direction as a people, maybe not this century, but if we can survive maybe someday we will find that path that leads to this type of world. I know it will come unless our children and our children's children see the uselessness of greed, prejudice, and war.

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Sun 01/20/08 08:53 PM
that sounded really nice coming from the mindofchrist

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