Friday, April 21, 2006

My Philosophy part 1

I once read or heard someone say "in the end only kindness matters". In my quarter century under this starry sky, I have had people be very kind to me for their own selfish ends and other reasons...but I've also had the joy of knowing the kindness of strangers. I've had people be kind to me with no apparent gain on their part. Infact my life is a testament to the kindness of strangers.


"We are each others' angels in the way that we answer each others' prayers, and we can also make each others' lives miserable." -------
Jewel

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I very, very, very much agree with that philosophy!Very much. And you know when people are kind to me for their own reasons, i don't know whether to be grateful (coz tho its for their own reasons they have done it anyway), feel like they are undermining my intelect (coz they are assuming i don't get it) or i don't know what.Fiona

Anonymous said...

i kind of disagree.
much as nothing is more moving than the kindness of strangers (just this morning someone i had never met cut my transit time to work by more than an hour by giving me a ride (which of course in turn helped me have a much more productive, less stressful day)) i think that we have all had so many bad experiences in life that sometimes we just tend to think the worst of pple.
sometimes it takes great courage to help someone bse u genuinely want to even though they'll assume there must be something in it for u.
a recent personal example is that i moved out of the apartment i had lived in for almost 2 years because my mother was lonely and sick. even though it means either spending all my salary on fuel to and from work or using public means and getting to work late (after literally leaving home in the dark at 6 20 or 6 30 every morning) and then getting home exhausted every day since her house is so far out of the city... i cant even describe what no longer having my own space to breathe and collect my thoughts at the end of each day has done to my sanity! but then to hear her decide that i've done it to cut costs(and say so to everyone who will listen - incidentally, i've never been so broke in my adult life) and watch her act like i did it for my own motives.... i cant describe how much it hurts.but she's my mother. i love her and realise that she came to me in a moment of weakness so i have to bear the consequences of my decision and hope that she understands why i did it eventually (and get over it if she never does) .
bottom line, i appreciate kindness in all its forms and never question pple's motives. we rarely understand other pple as well as we think we do.
sam