»
Discussion
»
pipTalk Lounge
»
Your faith in humanity
| pipTalk Lounge |
|
Your faith in humanity |
|
|
Severn Member Rara Avis
since 1999-07-17
Posts 7704
|
and what exactly restores it? What simple things makes you believe that human NICENESS actually exists?? Take this for example...there I am tonight...off to the supermarket. Now, I'm not allowed to drive (no not cause I've done anything illegal heh) at the moment so I have to catch a bus. So there I am - it's dark, I'm waiting and it's COLD. I wait for ten minutes...bus comes...whoopeee...my hand's stuck out - signalling. My nice, warm, vehicle-to-destination drives right past me. WELL! I may as well have had a puddle of water splashed in my face. And being dark was no excuse - I was under a brightly lit sign. HUMPH. So I walked...35 minutes, because I couldn't be stuffed waiting. (And then I got hassled by some guy in a car...brrrrrrrrr...nasty cretin). Faith In Humanity Plummet. But, when I got home - after managing to successfully catch a bus back I realised I had forgotten an onion. I only needed one for a sauce. So I went to my local grocers - it was 7.15pm. "Sorry, we're closed" I heard when I walked in...I had thought they shut at 8pm you see...but you know what? They gave me my onion - for free... Faith In Humanity Restored. Now - surely we all have moments like that... care to share?  K |
||
| © Copyright 2001 Kamla Mahony - All Rights Reserved | |||
|
Ron
Administrator
Member Rara Avis
since 1999-05-19
Posts 8669Michigan, US |
That's an easy one, K. I don't think we should base our faith in humanity on what other people do, because we'll never know their circumstances or understand their motivations. The bus driver may have been distracted by a passenger having a baby, the cretin in the car may have simply had good taste and bad judgement, and the grocer may have just wanted to get rid of an irritation. Base your faith in humanity on what you do. Then it need never waver, and I strongly suspect it will be VERY representative of the truth. |
||
|
Janet Marie Member Laureate
since 2000-01-22
Posts 18554 |
Firemen & women Policemen & women RedCross Relief workers Peace Corps Church & Hospital Volunteers & etc Volunteer work of any kind ... they are the worlds butterflies.  Homeless Shelters Humane Society and Animal Protection Save the Earth and Enviroment Protection groups Random acts of Kindness ... and of course the the friendships and bonds of support witnessed here daily thru poetry and replies and E-mails. Peace  |
||
Lady In White
since 2001-02-12
Posts 2799USA |
I do so appreciate Ron's approach... 'nuff said. |
||
|
Poet deVine
Administrator
Member Seraphic
since 1999-05-26
Posts 22612Hurricane Alley |
Since you are also a part of humanity, if you continue to do the 'little acts of kindness' then your faith need never waiver. Smile..... |
||
|
Elizabeth
Moderator
Member Ascendant
since 1999-06-07
Posts 6871Minnesota |
Humanity and niceness aren't always words in my vocabulary. |
||
|
Severn Member Rara Avis
since 1999-07-17
Posts 7704 |
Does anyone mind if I just keep my blanket of perception on a bit longer? Fact 1 - bus drivers in Auckland are AWFUL on a whole. There are more complaints and problems about them, than anyone in the customer service industry in this place. Eg - two weeks ago a bus driver smashed a woman passenger - who had 2 children with her - in the face. Why? Because he moved the bus forward while she was putting one child on it. She complained. Last year, a bus driver shut the doors on a child, whose bag was caught in them - he was dragged and killed. Accident yes, certainly. But when the child's body became detangled from the doors he kept going - passengers and all. Panic is no excuse for me - that was a child! Now, incidents like these happen on our buses all the time. I've been on buses when they drive right past people - oh and I've seen them in the mirror laughing. Now, this is not representative of the entire bunch...but I think I have sufficient experience with which to base my perceptions on. Shrug - of course it is only my perception, but I happen to know that this bus was late and I think the driver was in a hurry so 'ignored' a few people. As for the cretin - oh definitely good taste hehe. Bad judgement? He didn't even have any friends to impress...he just looked at me like I was a piece of meat. Fact 2: The grocers know me...we chat...I doubt I was an irration but I could've been, yes. I think it's all very well to have the philosophy of base your faith on what you do and do unto others etc...however, I also think that as we are human how others treat us affects how we feel about our fellows. I don't believe you can actually tell me that if someone does a good thing FOR you, then you won't feel just that little bit happier about being human. K[This message has been edited by Severn (edited 06-05-2001).] |
||
|
Dopey Dope
Moderator
Member Patricius
since 2000-08-30
Posts 11132San Juan, Puerto Rico |
Well I just try to do what I do....but sometimes my views on the world really does come from the whole view of it all. Some people can be sick and thus...humanity sucks, but then at other times I can see a sunset and see how beautiful the world is and it just clicks.... So i don't know but yea...ron had it....base it on what you can do.  |
||
|
brian madden Member Elite
since 2000-05-06
Posts 4374ireland |
NOrmal acts of kindness, just little things. staying thank you when I hold a door for some one in college most of the adminstration staff just walk by without acknowledging the fact that I held the door for them. I am not looking to have my ego massaged but common courtesy, something so simple yet few people take the time to excerise it. Does not matter what like of day they are having, on my worst days I still use manners and help people. I expect the same. "Build a man a fire, he'll be warm for a day. Set a man on fire and he'll be warm for the rest of his life". Terry Pratchett |
||
|
White Wolf Member
since 1999-09-18
Posts 371Somewhere in the vast wasteland |
Ron hit the nail on the head but I have expanded it a bit for what I believe. I would like to add to it that "what comes around, goes around" with the basic concept of the golden rule. Ok now, my philosophy, I am a "background" type of guy. I am like that customer service person that a customer is yelling at because his son's toy broke. I relate to that and that calms him down to just irritated. Now I make a comment or joke that makes him smile. Then I exchange his son's toy for a new one making a suggestion on what to get his son next time because they have proven reliable. I then smile and tell him that I hope he has a wonderful day. Now that he has left he probably won't remember me but the chances are that he will in turn smile at someone and just make their day or at least make it better or he may even help someone who needs it and thus restoring that persons faith in humanity. Now that will continue to happen from person to person but one thing if for sure, it will come back to me more than what I originally gave. It has happened many many times in my short exsistance. I am a happier person because of this and I am not worrying about what people are doing to me as much as I am about what I am doing to them. As for that guy well he is just lonely and knows he couldn't ever hope to have someone like you.  The White Wolf If life is just a game, when does it end cause I want to get to what is real. |
||
|
Brad Member Ascendant
since 1999-08-20
Posts 5705Jejudo, South Korea |
Faith in humanity? Why should I have faith in humanity? As far as using myself as an example of selfless humanity, that's even scarier -- I know the thoughts that percolate through my head. Drop it on the ground, step on it, sterilize it, and send it into space -- then see what happens. It's a far more interesting and amazing place if you don't worry about a base of goodness (selflessness) or a base of badness (sadism). As others have pointed out, we're a part of humanity anyway, to assume either extreme is a form of cenceit. In either case, your own views are either reaffirmed or disappointed. Assume people are self-interested at all times and all places and then look around. Replace the test of a personal philosophy, a test that humanity fails in either direction, with a sense of awe. It's not that we get more things 'right' than 'wrong' or more things 'wrong' than 'right' but that we get anything 'right' or 'wrong' at all. That we actually do something. Brad PS Auckland busdrivers don't even come close to Seoul busdrivers. |
||
SEA 
Moderator
Member Seraphic
since 2000-01-18
Posts 22676with you |
I think you are wrong Brad.... and what you said is just sad......... I have faith in goodness in general I know bad.... I had that beat into me.......(ex husband style) and I've had good..loved into me beyond anything I've ever known ( Jon )  selfish act? I don't care I don't question it I am just happy for it picking things apart is wrong learn to enjoy forget about motives PS...cab drivers in Okinawa are worse!! They are insane! |
||
|
Severn Member Rara Avis
since 1999-07-17
Posts 7704 |
Well now your talking binary oppositions Brad. I think they exist - constructed of course...but they're there. Not every principle in human society can be reduced to non-existence. Oh lol..and on the bus-driver front....the last two I have had have just been wonderful which made me think on this thread and spit tacks heh... K[This message has been edited by Severn (edited 06-08-2001).] |
||
|
Brad Member Ascendant
since 1999-08-20
Posts 5705Jejudo, South Korea |
Kamla, Of course I am. But where does this particular opposition lead? It seems to me an unnecessary abstraction, an abstraction that nobody follows anyway. "Faith in humanity" would lead one to trust people in power, to a blind trust; a lack of faith leads to the inability to make any compromise, to any trust at all. How do you live like that without, in some way, contradicting your own statement? SEA, I think you misunderstand my statement. It's not a cynical view but a rejection of the question. I find no solace in one direction or the other. I feel a sense of awe when I try to place any action in a context. Then, I try to deal with individual problems and exalt in individual joys on my perception of their own merit and take the appropriate action. A definition of humanity just kind of disappears. Brad |
||
|
Isis Member Ascendant
since 1999-09-06
Posts 6296Sunny Queensland |
I was going through a really rough spot a couple of years ago, I had no self esteem and believed the world was evil and everyone was only out for themselves and what they could get. Then out of the blue a neighbour whom I believed had taken advantage of my generosity for a number of years, called me to the fence and handed my a brand new computer printer! His gift to me for all I had done for him and his family of the years. My faith was then somewhat restored. Since that blessed reminder I now try to spread a little cheeriness wherever I go, via the internet, helping someone, offering to assist another, friendships, thankyou cards via snail mail, little things that make a difference to someone's day. I too did my share of volunteer work, and it is those truly selfless people (like the ones I worked with) that inspired me most... Isis *Enlightenment is within all things* |
||
|
catalinamoon
since 2000-06-03
Posts 9543The Shores of Alone |
Generally I am a bit(!) frustrated with humanity as a whole, but everytime a see a news story about firemen/women going straight into a burning building to save someone, it is a restorative moment. This is something that amazes me without fail, that someone is brave enough to walk STRAIGHT into a horrible fire, even if they don't know if someone is there, just on the off chance that there may be. I have seen them do it for pets, which always chokes me up as an animal lover. But when they bring a little child out of a fire, God, how can you not feel some sort of faith in the goodness of people. At least THOSE people. I live near a city that lost 4 firemen in a terrible disaster last year, and it was accidentally set by homeless people in an abandoned warehouse. For their info, there was likely no one there, but they went in anyway, and now they are dead. Another thing that has honestly changed my mind about people, is the caring I have found within these pages, with so many truly beautiful hearts. Now as for the rest of the world..well, I have nothing much good to say, though I'm sure it is there somewhere. |
||
|
|
⇧ top of page ⇧ |
|
| All times are ET (US). All dates are in Year-Month-Day format. | ||
