"And it's only the giving...

that makes you what you are"

These lines are from the song "Wond'ring Aloud" which I posted about
yesterday.

They've been like a kind of mantra in the back of my mind since I listened to them.

...and it's only the giving...

What KIND of giving?

That is probably the point! We give all sorts of things, we people!

We give love
We give money
We give hope
We give submission
We give power
We give honour
We give dishonour
We give nothing
We give everything
We give surety
We give pain
We give wisdom
We give pride
We give nurture
We give subjugation

We give of all that is both of The Good and all that is not. We give with one hand and take with the other.

We give of ourselves in the hope to win ourselves back!

We give altruistically not at all! We are too feeble to ever give altruism its purest expression - we need reciprocation too much.

It is in the expression of the sort of giving which brings the greatest benefit for all, that we can ever hope to achieve a certain form of altruism close to the ideal. Where our personal need to be sated through our conscious expression of goodness is mitigated by our communal need to elevate others to "better" things; there will we find the best of what we are.

I'm adopting this as a kind of meme for myself for now. A way to interpret my Purpose and to demonstrate my hope in everything possible through the expression of The Good.