Good Deeds

[LordOfDarkness]

I hate to be the party pooper here, but isn't this thread kind of...improper? Doesn't it just inflame the ego and inflate one's pride so that whatever good deed someone does is canceled out by their vainglory?

Wouldn't it be better to keep our good deeds (and bad deeds) to ourselves? Am I being too pessimistic?

Hmm...

I didn't create this thread to show off how good of a person I am. But isn't it better to hear everybody's good side? And also further more, appreciate other people. To say you have done something good, is a nice feeling. It doesn't make you selfish, if you did something good for others (Only selfish if you did something to benefit yourself) There's no selfishness in this thread at all, I find. And to be appreciated, when maybe you weren't when you did that good deed, is a greater reward.

I haven't really got anything to add. Except that I am trying to work on a Sig request from a friend here, and that's the only good thing I can think up (Whilst staying on topic)

 

[moseslmpg]

I didn't create this thread to show off how good of a person I am. But isn't it better to hear everybody's good side? And also further more, appreciate other people. To say you have done something good, is a nice feeling. It doesn't make you selfish, if you did something good for others (Only selfish if you did something to benefit yourself) There's no selfishness in this thread at all, I find. And to be appreciated, when maybe you weren't when you did that good deed, is a greater reward.

Even if that wasn't your intent, boating about one's good deeds does lead to such pride, which is generally understood as an undesirable characteristic. Just look at how many people like the whole "Mr Know it All, Supreme Ruler of Time and Space" persona I sometimes employ.

I'm not saying doing something good is selfish, but doing something good and then telling everybody about it doesn't strike me as kosher. Ideally, the good deed itself is supposed to be enough reward.

In any case, perhaps pride is the least of our problems here. It is more subtle and more advanced than other human faults, and generally doesn't like to reveal itself until other virtues have been attained. If you can honestly say there's no selfishness or pride in this thread, you are a better man than I (but don't let it go to your head ).

OK, I'll stop molesting this thread now.

 

[Angel]

Meh - I kind of agree with you here Moses. I just can't word it properly - I'm terrible at articulation. To me, to say I've done something good kind of negates it, in my mind. Not turning into something bad, but rather making it about me and not the person/situation I helped. Makes it look like my motive was not for the good of another but for my own ego-boost; for someone to say "hey, you did great!" I'm not saying anyone here is doing that, before you all jump down my throat, but it's just how I view talking about the "good things" I've done.

 

[Meg]

I took this as just a happy little thread where people can share happy things. I think that's what LoD's intent was. Saying you did something good doesn't negate it and make it about you. Its just sharing something you did that day. Its like talking about the weather, to me anyway. I don't feel better about myself because I can tell people about all the things I've done. Helping people is a jolly thing and who knows maybe this thread will inspire someone to do something nice they hadn't thought of.

 

[Angel]

I get that - I'm just saying how I personally view it

I'm not saying anyone here is doing that...but it's just how I view talking about the "good things" I've done.

 

[Meg]

^ Oh I know. I was just making a statement for whoever wanted to read it.

 

[aka958]

Sure, they can share it, but should they share it? Doesn't boasting about an unselfish deed make it selfish? I personally think it is pretty bad to bask in one's own light because it precludes any search for a greater light. But maybe I don't really believe that.

Although I am extremely humble (and not to mention ironically humorous...and handsome), and I have done myriad thousands of uncountable good deeds, some too great to even recount here, I still feel reluctant to post them for fear of belittling the good deeds of others.

So, refraining from posting my good geeds is my good deed for the day. Everyone is welcome. I'll go spread my benevolence to the rest of the world now.

Yeah... I'm gonna drop a big bomb on you and say everything you do is pretty much selfish. Why help someone? Because you feel it is the right thing to do and it makes you slightly happier and proud of yourself.
I mean, doesn't it make you feel that that you've helped an old lady (for example)?
In the end, if you wouldn't gain on it in any way, I don't think you would do it. Because you wouldn't care. Harsh reality, huh?

 

[Angel]

I don't know if that's necessarily true in its entirety. Motivation to help someone may well be because you feel it is the right thing to do but it doesn't always make you feel great about it. Sometimes we do things we know are right but it hurts us to do them in some way.

 

[Meg]

@aka- Ok ok that's enough. This is not on topic and not what this thread is about. Why don't we revive the sorta dead Let's Discuss! thread and take it there? Especially since I have a thing or two to say about that statement.

EDIT: ninja'd

 

[moseslmpg]

Yeah... I'm gonna drop a big bomb on you and say everything you do is pretty much selfish. Why help someone? Because you feel it is the right thing to do and it makes you slightly happier and proud of yourself.
I mean, doesn't it make you feel that that you've helped an old lady (for example)?
In the end, if you wouldn't gain on it in any way, I don't think you would do it. Because you wouldn't care. Harsh reality, huh?

Gaining benefit from doing something and doing something solely to gain benefit from it are two different things. And I believe that evolutionary theorists have pretty much discovered that altruism is encoded in our genes. But you are correct in some sense that it all comes back to the self, because as long as we have a self we will put it first. Hence my hesitance with this thread, which bolsters a sense of "I'm good."

But anyway, Let me unpoop the party here and put things back on topic. I made a wallpaper for my GF using my sometimes epic, always awkward paintshop skills. I'm glad with how it turned out and she seemed to like it. It was a labor of love more than a good deed, but I think it counts.

 

[LordOfDarkness]

Close this thread, I don't care now.

 

[Vergil'sBitch]

Oh what?
You can't be serious.

Its not really a good deed, i do it everyday, i love and respect my parents. Without them I'd be dead, i know that for a fact.

 

[Angel]

Nah, let's not shut another thread down I think people are enjoying posting the good things they do

 

[LordOfDarkness]

Nah, let's not shut another thread down I think people are enjoying posting the good things they do

Yes, but it is apparently selfish

I had a drink earlier. I suppose that was kind of selfish of me. Anyway, the latest good deed I have done was working hard at work. That is all really, can't say much else...

 

[moseslmpg]

I didn't mean to ruin your thread, LoD. I was just bringing up a point for contemplation. I think it is something we should keep in mind just to make sure our good deeds don't become tainted. Pride is a tricky beast, alas, and it is conceivable that one might gain some pride from the fact that they didn't let anyone know

In any case, it is better to do good and tell people than not do good at all. Carry on.


I'll let everyone see my masterful wallpaper once I get the OK from the GF.

 

[V]

Whatever good deeds I do, I'm sure I 'cancel them out' with my selfishness in other areas, if we're talking karma or whatever. Although the good deeds still stand on their own, which is a good thing.

I don't feel that great from doing good deeds. So I don't sit there thinking how wonderful and amazing I am for doing them. I usually do them because innocent people's suffering disgusts me - anything to make it that bit less. Not because I feel 'good' and because I want thanks... usually I get no thanks, and I don't expect thanks because I know I probably won't get them.

I've always wished there was someone who would help people who can't help themselves, because once I was one of them. There wasn't any, so I just had to become the person I wanted to find in the world. If you're looking for saints, the best chance of finding one is to become one.

I'm hardly a saint, though. Ho ho.

 

[moseslmpg]

Wise words indeed. Even if you did find a saint, ultimately they wouldn't be able to fix everything for you anyway, because that assumes problems are external and many are not.

In any case, I could not get authorization to post the wallpaper I made, but I will post another picture I made. Modified really. It was all freehand, as I'm sure you can tell.

My GF really likes Chococat (even though the racist, greedy bastards at Sanrio have all but removed him from their products), so I made this "Dr Chococat" to instruct her in the ways of health and take care of whatever ails her.

 

[DreadnoughtDT]

Ha ha, I made a Fraxy boss, and I'm planning on releasing this gem to the public in pieces so that they can figure it out themselves instead of having to pick apart at the whole thing.

Now if I could only implement that correctly so it doesn't fly apart when I tell it to start moving...

 

[The crazy demon]

Ha ha, I made a Fraxy boss, and I'm planning on releasing this gem to the public in pieces so that they can figure it out themselves instead of having to pick apart at the whole thing.

Now if I could only implement that correctly so it doesn't fly apart when I tell it to start moving...

Boss?......pieces flying around?........

What does that makes me remember.

Well, one time i helped a friend with his boss and today i helped my gramma

 

[V]

Oh I forgot... I helped to save a man from drowning once. Must have been back in 1996 or something. My mother and I were out late walking on the Mersey pier after going to this restauruant, and I heard this faint voice. I was the only one who heard it, the wind was strong. Anyway, I looked over the edge into the water and there was a guy who had jumped in. There were no stairs or anything at this place up to the pier so the guy was just clinging onto the 9 foot stone wall and it was November or something. The Mersey pier on the main side is miles and miles of vertical wall. With a set of stairs every half mile or so.

He must have been freezing in that water, and he was calling for help. I threw some of those life rings in to him and he missed all but the last one, but it was Liverpool and wouldn't you guess it - the rope off the life rings had been stolen, so we couldn't pull him in. He kept drifting further away, and it's foolish to dive in after someone to save them, especially in a river with a tide as strong as the Mersey - wicked tide. So my mother ran off up to the road to try and flag down a car and get someone to call the coastguard. Took her half an hour, in which time I was trying to get this guy by shouting to him to swim (he couldn't swim, his legs were numb). By the time the coastguard turned up the guy was so far away into the river I couldn't hear him, thanks to the tide, but they rescued him. If I hadn't heard him over the wind I doubt he would have survived hypothermia/drowning because there was no-one else around to throw him a ring.

Not really 'a good deed' - I didn't even think about it at the time, I just didn't wanna see this complete stranger die in front of me.

Although apparently he had tried to kill himself and we probably didn't make his day any better by saving him, it seemed to me he had a change of heart floating in that freezing, grotty Mersey water. I wonder where he is now. his name was Jim, that's all I found out about the guy while talking to him. Well, that and that his wife and kids had left him and he didn't think life was worth living without them.