Have you made a positive difference?

When you are dead, how much money you made, how famous or powerful you were, how much pleasure you had, how many people remember you, all this will not amount to a hill of beans.

The only thing that will matter is if you had a positive impact on this world, and I don't mean just humans. I mean humans and other animals and the whole damn planet. Maybe you made mistakes in your younger years but you slowly became who you really are, and then you began to make a positive difference for this world.

Have you made a positive difference? It's the only question that counts when we are dead and gone.

You could say it goes deeper than that. How you effect other humans does have a profound effect on the other stuff you mentioned because your interaction changed their course in life (same as they change yours) and in a way, you are responsable for how they effect those things.
A while back, I read a story about how in WW1 a soldier saw a scared German soldier with a certain distinct mustache, and decided to spare that one. Turns out that solider he spared was very likely Hitler. If he hadn't had a fleeting moment of empathy, the entire human race and planet itself would look quite different. Not saying the message here is 'spare no one' as much as it's 'even what seems like the most kind gestures today can lead somewhere you wouldn't guess'. So in all, there is no way of guessing with any certainty what your choices and actions do to effect the world, rather your intentions are good or not.

Behaving in a compassionate manner can sometimes have strange results, but it is the only way to proceed. if you are committed to doing the right thing, it is the only path to take.

I would like to think I have, but I likely have not. I am only a stay at home mother. Any job I have ever held has been menial at best, though I did always work my best regardless of what job I was doing. I have done everything from waitressing, delivering pizzas, stocking shelves for big box stores, lawn work, roofing, flipped burgers, and made clothes. Not nearly anything to put me in the rank and file of Trump, but that has never really been my goal either.

Aside from 3 or 4 years (here and there), I have been pretty much a full time mom for the last 16 years. I see my family, my parents, his family, and the random person when I leave home, I post here, and that's pretty much all the contact I have with the world.

So no. In the grand scheme of things, I will have no impact other than the child I (hopefully me first this time) will leave behind. I have tried the best I can with her and I think she will make a bigger *ripple* in this life than I ever could have. I sure hope so.

Me.... I am ok with my lot in life. I certainly am not leaving a negative impact, so that has to count for something.

reply to post by Kangaruex4Ewe

I'm a stay home mom too, and I know it's easy to feel that way, but it's a pretty direct way to influence the future. What better way to change it than raise it. (at least that's what I count to 10 and tell myself some days
)

Kangaruex4Ewe
I would like to think I have, but I likely have not. I am only a stay at home mother. Any job I have ever held has been menial at best, though I did always work my best regardless of what job I was doing. I have done everything from waitressing, delivering pizzas, stocking shelves for big box stores, lawn work, roofing, flipped burgers, and made clothes. Not nearly anything to put me in the rank and file of Trump, but that has never really been my goal either.

Aside from 3 or 4 years, I have been pretty much a full time mom for the last 16 years. I see my family, my parents, his family, and the random person when I leave, I post here, and that's pretty much all the contact I have with the world.

So no. In the grand scheme of things, I will have no impact other than the child I (hopefully me first this time) will leave behind. I have tried the best I can with her and I think she will make a bigger *ripple* in this life than I ever could have. I sure hope so.

Me.... I am ok with my lot in life. I certainly am not leaving a negative impact, so that has to count for something.

edit on 12/29/2013 by Kangaruex4Ewe because: (no reason given)

In my opinion, you have done more than the people like Trump and the other fame junkies. When you love and support a child, you create something that geometrically expands, and eventually becomes vastly more important than any corporation.

PutAQuarterIn
reply to post by Kangaruex4Ewe

 

I'm a stay home mom too, and I know it's easy to feel that way, but it's a pretty direct way to influence the future. What better way to change it than raise it. (at least that's what I count to 10 and tell myself some days

)

edit on 29-12-2013 by PutAQuarterIn because: (no reason given)

If that works I am trying it as early as 6 am.

droid56

In my opinion, you have done more than the people like Trump and the other fame junkies. When you love and support a child, you create something that geometrically expands, a eventually becomes vastly more important than any corporation.

Thank you. Hopefully she is a drop in the pond of a new generation that can start seeing some of the wrongs, finally righted and the world becoming a better place than it currently is. That is the hope for every generation no doubt... one day, one will achieve it!

reply to post by Kangaruex4Ewe


awesome respnose... your nuts god bless you.

I have always had one goal with my life, even before finding my faith.

It's real simple, I want the people who have met me, to have been better for the experience.

I may not have been able to deliver 100% of the time, but for the most part I have, and for me that's really all anyone can do in this life.

Try to leave the world a better place than you found it.

I'd like to think I have.

I've volunteered for the salvation army in the past, and before I go grocery shopping I always ask some of my neighbors if they need anything. I've gone out of my way to help friends when their chips are down, and donated at least a thousand dollars to charity.

Do I get a good feeling from these deeds? no. It's just a natural thing to help others and if you do it to feel better about yourself then you're missing the point.

droid56
Have you made a positive difference? It's the only question that counts when we are dead and gone.

What motivates you to believe that making a positive difference is the only thing that matters when one is dead and gone?

reply to post by Kangaruex4Ewe


"If you bungle raising your children, I don't think whatever else you do matters very much" - Jackie O

She's got a point. We can't all be Mandela or Mother Theresa, and so I think it's the small things that really do matter. Or things that seem small to us, but who really knows what influence we'll have when we're dead?

I work with survivors of abuse and trauma, but is that a 'good' thing to do? Will they even remember me? Does it matter?
I hope it does.
But then I always like seeing your name next to posts because I know you're going to say something I agree with. You were one of the reasons I started posting here, other than that I thought I should start contributing too, instead of just reading and taking from the site. I liked your points of view and thought there might be room for me too. So I suppose that's my response to the OP: we can never be sure what our contribution will have been, but it's the small things that count.

reply to post by droid56

Yes. Ive received the Presidential Service Award for volunteerism in my community and nation.

EMT/ERT Citizen Corps/FEMA/Homeland Security

Im pleased to serve.

The positive you talk about is not what society pushes as positive behavior. You are right though, we should look at those qualities to judge people. S&F. It just doesn't work that way nowadays though.

mysterioustranger
reply to post by droid56

 

Yes. Ive received the Presidential Service Award for volunteerism in my community and nation.

EMT/ERT Citizen Corps/FEMA/Homeland Security

Im pleased to serve.

Thank you mysterioustranger, you are a good man (or woman)!

On top of all the awards and certs I would ask you to count the smiles you bring in the new year.

Cheers my friend!

The problem is that the world is complex and sometimes positive things come form bad and even evil deeds and sometimes good ness comes from the best of things. We neven know how good or bad we have made the world. I also thought it good to point out that many of those you think of as being the highest achievers and those that you think did the most good of all, are really selfish people doing what they wanted to do to get what they wanted: this would include prime ministers, presidents, the superich.....

I suppose the real problem is that people seem to get very little opportunity to really make a difference because people hoard opportunities to themselves and people like them: although I talk from a UK perspective here.

reply to post by soulshn

No thanks necessary, but certainly appreciated. Happy New Year to you and yours. MS


GET INVOLVED. BE PREPARED. MAKE A PLAN.

I take the mid-range approach.

Name one individual from 10,000 years ago that we care about, or know of an impact from.

Why would it be any different in 10,000 years?

Assuming we are still around -mwhahahaha- why would anyone be so narcissistic to imagine that any single person alive today could do something with their lives that had a lasting impact 10,000 years in the future?

There will be nobody who remembers who you ever were.

So no, nothing matters in the mid-term, but in the short run, we sure as heck are deluded and like to pretend!


As far as "best", it doesn't really exist. Opinions, only. You expand out enough, and the context changes the world into a pebble, gift into a curse, and help into disaster.

Just do as you choose to value, and believe in, and follow your own opinions as you see fit.

No impact but what we delude ourselves into believing.

So what?

The dream is more fun than reality, so be it.

reply to post by webedoomed


Well stated.

Also worth mentioning is that recorded history is likely to be filled with inaccuracies; those who were not there to directly experience the event cannot be sure that all that was recorded by others is an accurate representation of what took place. Heroes have been painted as villains and villains as heroes.

For me it's the small things that in the end might have a positive impact for someone and maybe encourage them to be positive and kind in return. Like slowing down to let a car into the lane when no one else would perhaps that driver will later in the day return the favor to someone else. It's small but uplifting nontheless.

Once in a while theres a chance to do something really compassionate.

Sometimes I drive a cab on weekends for extra income and a few months ago I got a fare to pick up someone who got beaten by her boyfriend real bad, cops called for a taxi for her. I ended up embracing her when we got to her apartment and offered to pay for the trip telling her tomorrow is a new day and in the end it will be alright.

I guess that might have changed her outlook for the better and perhaps hastened her healing process. Certainly affected me in a profound way.

But I don't think anyone will remember my name 100 years from now, maybe she will remember my face for the next year or two but in the end will end up in the whitened out pages of history.