last night, al john mentioned something about the selfishness or selflessness of giving. basically, to distinguish the difference between the two, you just need to ask yourself if the act of giving hurts. if it does, it’s selflessness. if it makes you feel warm and happy inside, then you’re being selfish.

i don’t really agree to that postulate but i’m not closing my mind on that idea either. it’s just that the more i think about it, the more i come to the conclusion that giving is giving. it is what it is. whether or not it makes you happy, it does make a difference on the world somehow.

like indirectly providing food on some stranger’s table. or helping them score some quality drugs. either of which would make them happy. and because they’re happy, they share their food or drugs to the people they love. everything comes full circle at some point.

today a woman wandered around our neighborhood asking if she could do our laundry so she could earn some money to buy food for her kids. said she haven’t eaten lunch yet. i gave her some crackers and some water. my mom asked her where she was from and insisted that she hitch a ride with us since we were going on that route anyway. she gave her a hundred bucks. plus a little extra for her fare when my mom asked her how much it would cost to get to her hometown.

after dropping the stranger off somewhere in mandaue, i told my mother about the different tactics these kinds of people use. of which she totally agreed, saying, “bitaw. ayaw jud mo ug pa-ilad. ako bitaw careful man kaayo ko ug mga ingon ana.”

i think liwat ko sa akong mama — ilaronon. lol.