"Judge not ye by the depth of their pockets, but by the size of their heart. "
This was a thought that came to me out of the blue as I was washing dishes. I was thinking about the selfless acts of an older gentleman today who was out with his family. Without a second thought, he paid for my breakfast, and gave the 3 year old boy who came in with his mom after us a 5 dollar bill. It was awe-inspiring.
Why was it awe-inspiring? He was just a nice guy right?
Allow me to paint the picture first.
You walk into a small diner type restaurant, looking for a breakfast feast. It's a sit-yourself-and-we-will-serve-you type of place, where the Misses walks around and hands out the menus and greets the guests, while the Mister handles business in the kitchen, crafting the orders of the customers as a young but skillful cook would. You scan the joint, taking in all the wonderful smells meant to make you stay hungry, only seeing 4 other people sitting together at the largest of the hodgepodge of tables that scatter the dining room. The group holds seniority over you in the area of birthdays, but are having a spry conversation with the Misses, chuckling and joking as they order their meals. You decide to take the seat to the right of the group, in a spot that you favored on previous visits. You sit down and immediate can tell they are family, as they refer to the one whose seat is right next to yours, as it were, as dad. This man looks over at you, and you both share a greeting, you being polite and generally pleased to have had the pleasure to greet a former marine that took the quick moment to look at you while with family. "You all alone?" he asks you. You smile and let him know that it is just you for breakfast today. He turns back to his family, with what you think was without a second thought.
He suddenly gets up and heads into the direction of the front counter, where he has a private word with the Misses. She smiles and nods, and comes over to take your order. You end up sparking a conversation with members of the family as you all wait for the Mister to finish his artful preparation of your meals, and after the meals are delivered, eaten, and the sighs of satisfaction are expelled, you begin looking for the check. That is when you find out from the Misses that the old marine took care of you. As you sit back in surprise, watching a mother and her son come in, you find that you are at a loss for words. Even more so as you watch him deliver an unexpected $5 to the little boys spot at the table behind you while the mother and the boy say their hellos to the Mister and Misses.
Consider This...
Selflessness is not a trait found in all people in all generations. It doesn't take a scientific study or a poll to find that out. Kindness is, even if it is not always genuine. I have been told that I am selfless, and that I have a big heart. But in that moment, where I was in the presence of a master, I was reminded of why I am not. As Inigo Montoya said, "You keep using that word. I don't think it means what you think it means."
Consider the fact that our society has bills, debt, and a need to continue to maintain the life support they are on by working a job. Some are fortunate enough to have their job as a business they run, but at the end of the day, you are still paying into these things. If these things did not exist, would you be selfless? What if you were blessed/lucky to come into enough money to deepen your pockets and live off the new income for the rest of your life. Would you be selfless then? Must you first be thankful of the things that you have, the life that you live and the ability to provide for others before you can be selfless and just provide? I learned in that event that the answer is yes and no.
Why yes? Because if you aren't breathing, then you are self-less, breathless, and soul-less (if you believe in the last thing of course). So you should be thankful at least for the ability to breath so that you can be selfless.
Okay, why no? Because the acts of selflessness are spontaneous. They are a knee-jerk reaction. They require no pretense, no setup, and especially no thankfulness. You may decide one day when you wake up that you are going to donate your time to the local soup kitchen. Or maybe to surprise your significant other with breakfast in bed. Or maybe you are just going to go to the restaurant, see a person who visibly has a lot on his mind, no one to talk to, and you drop the amount needed to pay his bill.
In a famous interview before his death, Bruce Lee said, "Be formless. Shapeless. Like water. You put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You put water into a bottle, it becomes the bottle. You put water into a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Water can flow, or it can crash." True selflessness is fluid like water, molding itself to the needs of others. It can flow just as in my situation today, where I eventually did something that I had never done before, and paid for an other's meal. Or it can crash, like when a small boy with a love for superheroes and two tumors in his head receive enough donations in less than two weeks to pay for a good portion of the surgery needed to remove those tumors (to see what I mean, click here).
So consider the fact that true selflessness is never ending and always flowing so long as you choose to be like water. When you are, you will cause the wave to grow and spread until one day it becomes a tsunami. So, I share this with you in hopes that you too will one day become more like water,
This was a thought that came to me out of the blue as I was washing dishes. I was thinking about the selfless acts of an older gentleman today who was out with his family. Without a second thought, he paid for my breakfast, and gave the 3 year old boy who came in with his mom after us a 5 dollar bill. It was awe-inspiring.Why was it awe-inspiring? He was just a nice guy right?
Allow me to paint the picture first.
You walk into a small diner type restaurant, looking for a breakfast feast. It's a sit-yourself-and-we-will-serve-you type of place, where the Misses walks around and hands out the menus and greets the guests, while the Mister handles business in the kitchen, crafting the orders of the customers as a young but skillful cook would. You scan the joint, taking in all the wonderful smells meant to make you stay hungry, only seeing 4 other people sitting together at the largest of the hodgepodge of tables that scatter the dining room. The group holds seniority over you in the area of birthdays, but are having a spry conversation with the Misses, chuckling and joking as they order their meals. You decide to take the seat to the right of the group, in a spot that you favored on previous visits. You sit down and immediate can tell they are family, as they refer to the one whose seat is right next to yours, as it were, as dad. This man looks over at you, and you both share a greeting, you being polite and generally pleased to have had the pleasure to greet a former marine that took the quick moment to look at you while with family. "You all alone?" he asks you. You smile and let him know that it is just you for breakfast today. He turns back to his family, with what you think was without a second thought.
He suddenly gets up and heads into the direction of the front counter, where he has a private word with the Misses. She smiles and nods, and comes over to take your order. You end up sparking a conversation with members of the family as you all wait for the Mister to finish his artful preparation of your meals, and after the meals are delivered, eaten, and the sighs of satisfaction are expelled, you begin looking for the check. That is when you find out from the Misses that the old marine took care of you. As you sit back in surprise, watching a mother and her son come in, you find that you are at a loss for words. Even more so as you watch him deliver an unexpected $5 to the little boys spot at the table behind you while the mother and the boy say their hellos to the Mister and Misses.
Consider This...
Selflessness is not a trait found in all people in all generations. It doesn't take a scientific study or a poll to find that out. Kindness is, even if it is not always genuine. I have been told that I am selfless, and that I have a big heart. But in that moment, where I was in the presence of a master, I was reminded of why I am not. As Inigo Montoya said, "You keep using that word. I don't think it means what you think it means."
Consider the fact that our society has bills, debt, and a need to continue to maintain the life support they are on by working a job. Some are fortunate enough to have their job as a business they run, but at the end of the day, you are still paying into these things. If these things did not exist, would you be selfless? What if you were blessed/lucky to come into enough money to deepen your pockets and live off the new income for the rest of your life. Would you be selfless then? Must you first be thankful of the things that you have, the life that you live and the ability to provide for others before you can be selfless and just provide? I learned in that event that the answer is yes and no.
Why yes? Because if you aren't breathing, then you are self-less, breathless, and soul-less (if you believe in the last thing of course). So you should be thankful at least for the ability to breath so that you can be selfless.
Okay, why no? Because the acts of selflessness are spontaneous. They are a knee-jerk reaction. They require no pretense, no setup, and especially no thankfulness. You may decide one day when you wake up that you are going to donate your time to the local soup kitchen. Or maybe to surprise your significant other with breakfast in bed. Or maybe you are just going to go to the restaurant, see a person who visibly has a lot on his mind, no one to talk to, and you drop the amount needed to pay his bill.
In a famous interview before his death, Bruce Lee said, "Be formless. Shapeless. Like water. You put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You put water into a bottle, it becomes the bottle. You put water into a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Water can flow, or it can crash." True selflessness is fluid like water, molding itself to the needs of others. It can flow just as in my situation today, where I eventually did something that I had never done before, and paid for an other's meal. Or it can crash, like when a small boy with a love for superheroes and two tumors in his head receive enough donations in less than two weeks to pay for a good portion of the surgery needed to remove those tumors (to see what I mean, click here).
So consider the fact that true selflessness is never ending and always flowing so long as you choose to be like water. When you are, you will cause the wave to grow and spread until one day it becomes a tsunami. So, I share this with you in hopes that you too will one day become more like water,
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