RE: Have you ever seen or met someone who represents someone you fear you might turn out like when you are old?
I can see we think in a very similar way. I also do and have done, the same thing - seeing others errors and taking them as a warning. Not such a silly thing really.
However, using this plan of action also causes me to occasionally battle with myself questioning if I am good person or not. For example, when I see this old professor and learn from his error, in a way I benefit from it. So I feel a little guilty and to help lessen that guilt I give him free meals and spend time with him. Im not sure if that is a genuine motivation to do good. My grandmother used to say that action speaks louder than words and thinking about helping someone is different than actually helping someone. She reckoned that it is our actions and non-actions that define who we are. Life is confusing sometimes.
Thanks for the feed back my good fellow : )
:) yes i think we do think very similarly... i think the line of questioning whether you're a good person or not is good self reflection. for me though, i tend to think of good person/bad person not in such a cut and dry thing. perhaps it is meeting so many people throughout my life who maybe some people would call bad, but they have such shining elements that redeem them.. where do we cut the line? who deserves the title bad and who good? i know one alcoholic man who is one of also the wisest i've ever met.. he is unwise choosing to be addicted to varying things, but in other ways he sees very clearly... i also know some "good" people who are so boring and lead boring lives and who aren't very free in their minds. maybe they live good lives, but they aren't really shaking the world up in any way...to me, i think we can't put the titles on most people, and even ourselves..
if we "use" other people in this sense to get our own learning... to me, that's a factor of life!
to give you an example of one person i met that helped me "see" my future... it was an older woman i lived with for a time. i am a homesteader and before i found my land i was looking for it. this woman was going to share her land... but i soon found out, though she was in her 70s and in excellent health, she lived on basically no money every year! she couldn't easily visit her kids or buy things she needed. i admired her lifestyle, compassion, ethics, work in the world, etc very much, but i thought, "man i need to change my thinking around money or this could be me!" "and i definitely want to have more freedom and to be taken care of more when i'm older; to have money "worked out" so to say..." ... ultimately i didn't live there for too long, as the ideas around money were too cloistered. sometimes, i feel like sending this woman money or gifts.. perhaps that "guilt" feeling you talk about... but, too, i just realize what a blessing this woman is to the world and that she should have ample money to feel more secure... anyway, that's just one example from my own life that i've taken a different course after coming in contact with this woman.
personally, i wouldn't worry about being too good or too bad... i think if we can be proud of ourselves at the end of the day (and change the behaviors that make us unproud of ourselves), i think we can sleep well.. i'm not sure if this woman would accept money if i sent it anyway.. <3
Wow, what a wise person you are. I hope you dont mind but I have now added you to my follow list.
oh i don't know about that! ;) (the wise part)... hey i followed you too ;) <3