Up@dawn 2.0

Tuesday, May 5, 2015

I'm Basically Billy Mays in this Post Right Now You Guys: A Final Blog Post by Holly Aslinger H01-group 3

My final blog post will continue on the theme of support.

So, I spent all this time telling you that you should support others, and gave you a whole spiel on how that works with different personality types.

But wait!!! There’s more!!!
You might ask, “But Holly, why on Earth would I want to support other people? That is silly when I could just NOT and it probably wouldn’t matter that much in the long run? Right?????”

No, my dear children!!!

What if I told you that supporting others is actually beneficial to you also???

WELL YA BEST BUCKLE UP YOUR SEAT BELTS AND HOLD ON TO YOUR SEATS BECAUSE I GOT NEWS FOR YOU, KIDS!!!

It is. It actually is!

The Dalai Lama (the leading authority on everything, I decided) once said,
“If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion.” 
(I don’t know which Dalai Lama said this.)

So, compassion isn’t always quite the same thing as support, really, BUT it can take the form of support, and quite often does.
compassion
[kuh m-pash-uh n] 
noun
1.
a feeling of deep sympathy and sorrow for another who is stricken by misfortune, accompanied by a strong desire to alleviate the suffering.

support
[suh-pawrt, -pohrt
1.
to sustain (a person, the mind, spirits, courage, etc.) under trial oraffliction:
They supported him throughout his ordeal.
2.
to maintain (a person, family, establishment, institution, etc.) bysupplying with things necessary to existence; provide for:
to support a family.
3.
to uphold (a person, cause, policy, etc.) by aid, countenance, one'svote, etc.; back; second.

See? Not the same thing. They relate though, because you are compassionate when you choose to support others! Nifty, right?

“But wait!” you say. “You forgot about the benefits, Holly! How does it help me?”

My dear grasshopper, all in good time!

You feel better about yourself when you do nice things for other people and when you support them!
And if you support others and are kind to them, they might do the same for others and then pass on the support!

And THEN if everyone is like that, THEN you have a cute lil’ support chain that will eventually make its way around the world and THEN the world is a little bit better than it was before!

But what are the odds of that happening, right? We can still try, though.

In the macro sense, it probably doesn’t even really matter, but what are you in the macro sense? NOTHING.
Face it. You’re pretty insignificant.

In the words of the character Nicky Nicholson in the Netflix series Orange is the New Black:

[upon being asked by Piper if it would matter if she (Piper) died]

“In the macro sense, no. You're one Cheerio in the bulk box of life. But, you f*ckin' tickle me, so I think it would matter.

So since you don’t really matter in the macro sense you should totally be cool to everyone else and support them when you can, because it makes the world a better place, and you will likely feel better about your crushing existentialism and inability to cope with the fact that when you die you will fade into oblivion and no one will remember you!
Unless you become famous. Then you might be remembered. But even then, what difference will you have made?

So go forth, my beautiful little cinnamon rolls, and do good!
 


3 comments:

  1. interesting post, quite a shocking revelation at the end when u tell someone that they are meaningless in the big world. but sometimes the truth is sour. i think sometimes our lives are meaningless, but we can make them count when like u said we help others achieve more than we can.

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  2. interesting post, quite a shocking revelation at the end when u tell someone that they are meaningless in the big world. but sometimes the truth is sour. i think sometimes our lives are meaningless, but we can make them count when like u said we help others achieve more than we can.

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  3. Bravo! You've written a great reply to the Ayn Randians of the world, who say we should each live only for our puny selves. (Kurt Vonnegut had another good reply, see the bottom of this page.)

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