This I Believe

It should be noted that I tend to have a larger vocabulary when writing. It’s just how I work, and it doesn’t mess up my flow when I read it out loud.

It may be considered normal to do good things to get a reward, be that monetary or that “warm fuzzy feeling”, but I believe that we should do what we can to help others out, even where there is no reward. It’s not so much of a religion thing so much as a make-the-world-a-better-place-to-live thing. This isn’t something that will solve every single problem in the world, but it can very well solve most of them.

The little things can go a long way. When I was in middle school and high school, there was this disabled kid named Amos. He had cerebral palsy and couldn’t fully control his motor functions, especially on his right side. On top of that, he was also a bit socially awkward. He was an open book and would share much of what was on his mind, whether you wanted to hear it or not.

I don’t know how it happened, but during lunch, I ended up being the one who would help him get his lunch tray and all that jazz. It just so happened that I would take the same bus home as him, so he became reliant on me fast. I say reliant because he wasn’t necessarily dependent, but he would take any chance he could to get help from me. It was not a rewarding experience, but I do regret the times that I had made up an excuse to not help him out, simply because I feel like an entitled prick for doing so (and a lack thereof said feelings do not count as a reward, fyi).

Thankfully, Amos is still thankful the time that I did invest in helping him. There’s not much he can give to me to “pay back” for the help, and there’s certainly not a whole lot of warm fuzzies from this event,  but it’s reinforcement of my own belief of doing the right thing no matter what you get in return. This I believe, because this is what I want to see in the rest of the world. As put by Mahatma Ghandi, “Be the change that you want to see in the world.”

I have much more I would like to say about this, but I will save that for class time.



1 comment so far ↓

#1   fuglsang on 10.16.14 at 10:16

Is the parenthetical comment for me? I don’t see any vicar that’s out of line.

I think I’d like more information to fill out that last graf. Are you and Amos still in contact? Does he remind you on occasion that he’s grateful for what you did?

Your final thought is nicely Kantian: Lead your life in a way that you would have others lead theirs. Treat others as you would have them treat you.

You must log in to post a comment.