Did you ever do something good? (1 Viewer)

[Micheal]

That's nice Joe but a small guy with a gun can accomplish wonders.

I stopped at a car off to the side of the road when I saw an elderly woman standing next to it. Her car broke down and her cell phone wasn't working (out of range). I drove her down the road to my house where she used my phone to call her husband.

I drove her back to her car and waited for her husband to show up. They took over from there. Next morning I had a nice bottle of wine show up with a personal thank you.

 

[ChrisHeflen]

(minor)

We have a couple of toll bridges and I'll usually pay for the person behind me if they look nice. I'll just tell the clerk they're with me or I'm covering them. I never look back, but always watch for their reaction in the rear-view mirror. It's kinda funny when the clerk tells them that I paid for them. They look all around and stuff.
Sadly though, there is usually a stop sign a little further up and when they pull up beside me or behind, there has never been a wave, honk or smile and while that's not why I do it, you'd think you'd get one.

 

[JordanS]

I cut down some trees, chopped them for firewood, and gave them to my poor neighbors down the street.

 

[Garrett Lundy]

Well the lady who took the purse was anyway.....

 

[Colton]

I've always wanted to visit the local homeless shelter and find a family to take them to a all-you-can-eat buffet, but I'm told you can't just waltz into a homeless shelter and take your pick of which family you want to treat to dinner. You have to call ahead and THEY (the shelter) picks which family you'll get for the evening. You tell the shelter how many people you want to treat and they get them ready. Now, I'm not saying this is wrong, but it just wasn't the way I wanted to go about doing it.

Now, people on the corner with signs have always made me suspicious. I would rather give the needy some clothes and food before I part with money that they could use to purchase drugs or alcohol.

- Colton

 

[Garrett Lundy]

In Syracuse theres one guy at the corner of Adams St. & the 81 overpass. Hes been panhandling change in the same spot for years... must pay good enough.

Anyway, heres the test: Offer them a Big Mac (or a whopper, 6" subway sub, whatever). If they turn-down food and only want money, find a less-picky mooch to feel good about helping.

 

[Jon_Are]

'round these parts, Meijer Supermarkets charge one cent for a pony ride.

As for me, I was selling an item on ebay that went for $9-something. The winning bidder sent me a money order for $87 - he obviously mixed up two auctions he'd won. I notified him and returned his money order pronto.

Jon

 

[todbnla]

I recently stopped by my insurance company to pay a bill, while leaving, this young, very attractive female in a business suite comes up and asks for help. I could see she was upset and asked how I could help. She tells me she cant get her car to start and I take a look. Well, to make a long story short, I went down the street and bought her a gas can and filled it up, bought it back, and put it in her car. It started up and she wanted me to take money for helping her out. I told her NO, that I have three girls in my family and they will all be driving shortly and if they ever broke down I would want someone to help them out too. She was so happy she started to Cry, made me feel great to help out.

 

[mark alan]

That is not a good deed, that is biology in action. If it had been a fat ugly man, would you still have helped? I doubt that I would have (that is what AAA is for).

 

[Chris]

I continue to support RAINN (http://www.rainn.org/), but I also act as a counselor to new parents who have OI (Osteogenisis Imperfecta) children.

I get to feel like everyday I try to do something good

(BTW, these are not my full-time job, where I work IT management as a hired consultant for multiple firms, this is more a matter of extra-ciricular stuff)

 

[Jon_Are]

You're a saint, Todd, an absolute saint.

Jon

 

[ThomasC]

I was talking about Meijer too.

 

[MarkHastings]

How funny is it that you think his town is living in the past (because their mechanical horse rides take pennies), when those mechanical horse rides are so '70's and 80's.

Seriously, I haven't seen one of those things in YEARS! - - - Well, they have them in the mall, but outside a store? YEARS!

 

[todbnla]

mark alan



Hey, easy, I am the fat ugly man...

 

[Dick]

I consider myself a very selfish person, although every so often I'll do a "good deed." But my belief is that almost anything I do in this respect is ultimately for my own personal gain, even if that is only that I feel better about myself. That may sound ridiculous, but I don't have a lot of self-esteem, and tend to be hard on myself and don't give myself much credit. But I also think that the best good deeds are the ones not shared or boasted about, so my most recent effort is one known only to me.

 

[MarkHastings]

Not at all. It reminds me of that episode of Friends where Pheobe and Joey are arguing about how every good deed is selfish and Pheobe is trying to prove that it's not true. It's kind of hard to really find a "true" non-selfish good deed.

I guess it all depends. If I donate a $1 (at the grocery store check out line) and it makes me happy, is that selfish? Or, if I donate $10,000 and it makes me happy, does that still make me selfish (because I got joy out of it)?

I guess the only true non-selfish act would be giving your life to save someone elses.

 

[Chuck Mayer]

On the reverse side, being the recipient of a good deed. Recently in the NoVA area, we had a nasty power outage that also managed to stop the water purification plant for a rather huge area (good engineering there, dickheads...). Out to get my family a meal, we end up waiting in a VERY long drive-thru line at a local Wendy's. A guy in a truck had clearly been waiting to get in, and bitter and impatient people weren't about to let him in. His line was backing up, so were we, and my wife and I just let the guy in. What's one more spot in the line anyway?

So we get up to the window and our meal is already paid for. A class act, completely unnecessary. Still, it was quite nice to see the gesture, which meant more than the meal.

As for being selfish and non-selfish...if you need a meal or some help, you don't care why the person is giving it to you Besides, doesn't it make you NON-selfish if helping others makes you feel good. It's a chicken-egg argument.

Take care,
Chuck

 

[MarkHastings]

This is true. I guess you really aren't just concerned about yourself (which is what being selfish is), so helping others is not selfish no matter what you get out of it.