Name the most important thing you have found out in your life!

Monocrom

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Doing what is right, isn't always the easiest path...
Sometimes, it's the wrong path.
Won't get heavy into it, but there was a genocide that was caused right around WWI. One that never would have occurred if a certain individual had NOT done what almost everyone would call the "Right Thing."

Political criminal, certain to be executed if caught. Hidden away and protected until it was safe to travel. Family that hid him, instead of turning him over for a hefty reward, was of a different ethnicity. One that traditionally didn't get along with his. He promised the family things would be different once he came to power. Technically, promise kept! Started a genocide against the very same ethnicity as that of the family who helped him.

Sometimes, it's best to be selfish.
 

M@elstrom

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Sometimes, it's the wrong path.
Won't get heavy into it, but there was a genocide that was caused right around WWI. One that never would have occurred if a certain individual had NOT done what almost everyone would call the "Right Thing."

Sometimes, it's best to be selfish.
I refute that concept, genocide amongst the other evils committed by society (or the individual) are deeply rooted in "me first" greed model.

Unless you have a warped moral compass, knowing what is the right thing to do isn't the challenge.
 

Monocrom

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^^ No good deed goes unpunished
True.... Though imagine literally millions being punished for the one good deed of someone else. Don't even wish to imagine the look of horrified realization that came across that father's face for his good deed.
 

Monocrom

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I refute that concept, genocide amongst the other evils committed by society (or the individual) are deeply rooted in "me first" greed model.

Unless you have a warped moral compass, knowing what is the right thing to do isn't the challenge.
Refute all you wish. It's true. If that family had simply turned him over to the ones in power when he came begging for their help, literally millions would have lived. The father knew who he was. Turn him over, get a huge reward that would have helped his family. But he chose to "do the right thing." Selfishness and greed would have prevented a genocide.

But let's take a more everyday example.... Just on the news last night in NYC was a report of a Good Samaritan who got shot/critically injured for jumping into the middle of a dispute with neighbors in Harlem. She might not make it. Literally would not have gotten shot had she not done the right thing. Another example of how it's sometimes best to be selfish. Happens often to Good Samaritans.

Perry Saturn's wrestling career ended when he was shot several times in an ally. He succeeded in preventing the gun-wielding criminal from committing R. on a woman. Incredibly, Saturn lived. Though from what he went through and continues to experience to this day, maybe he wishes he hadn't. Saved a total stranger. Crippled for the rest of his life. Now his wife supports and takes care of him.
 

Toulouse42

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Something I learned from my father.

Work hard
Stay sober
Look after your family.

My dad did that every day of his life. Not bad for someone who had to leave school at age 12 when his own father died from injuries he suffered in WW1.
 

KITROBASKIN

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Each of us will make decisions whether to intervene against hate and cruelty. Some will regret for the rest of their lives about being a selfish coward for not stepping up for what is right.

There is a saying in Ukraine these days regarding the fighting: If not us, who? Murderous bullies lusting for their version of greatness should get their way? The men and women fighting against hate during World War ll did not choose self preservation above everything else. We have them to thank for the life we live today.
 

bykfixer

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Today I learned that while fueling your car if a nearby trashcan is smoking it is best to stop fueling the car and put out the fire.
Actually I kinda already knew that yet had never had that issue. Today about half way through a fill up I saw smoke begin to rise from a nearby trash can.

The window washer bucket near the pump had lots of water so I rung out the washer tool over the trash can and it put out the burning paper. Some dummy had put a cigar into the trash can without extinguishing it first. Rum-dum!!

I completed fueling up the car after that.
 

bykfixer

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Years ago at my work a new boss arrives. Everybody in the room jumps to attention except me. I had work to do. So yeah, I spun around in my chair and faced the guy who had arrived driving a remote control toy truck through the door and announces "I'm here". I'm thinking "great my new leader is Daffy Duck".

The rest in the room would just guhfaw at his juvenile jokes and pretend he was the greatest guy ever. I just sat their facing the guy all puzzled-like. Well at one point he says "who wants to buy me a soda?" There was a 50 cent soda machine in the next building. Oh, they all raised their hand "me, me, pick me". I spun back around in my chair and continued typing. He says "you there" (talking to me) "how about you go next door and buy me a soda".... I said facing away "give me 50 cents and I'll get right on it.... boss".

You could have knocked those other people over with a feather as they sucked all the air out of the room gasping. Dude handed me two quarters and I went next door and bought him a soda. I even tapped the top so as to make sure it didn't explode when he popped the pull tab.

It was actually pretty hard to not be like those other folks. Sometimes being real is hard. But the day I left he said I was the only one there he trusted from the moment he met me because I didn't volunteer to buy him a soda that day.
 

KITROBASKIN

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Good story fixer.

Also wanted to mention that Monocrom makes a valid point about being careful not to blunder into dangerous situations all heroic-like, then getting chumped or worse.
 

Poppy

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Good story fixer.

Also wanted to mention that Monocrom makes a valid point about being careful not to blunder into dangerous situations all heroic-like, then getting chumped or worse.
Yeah, it is so easy to take the negative position. Ignore wrong doing, and stay uninvolved.

I still take the position that one should endeavor to do the right thing, and to encourage others to do the same.

When in high school, my son saw a few boys bullying another kid, throwing his hat around. As my son approached them, they tossed it to a girl who ran into the girl's locker room. My son put one foot inside the door, and grabbed the hat. He gave it to the kid.

He got called into the office, and placed in detention. They have a zero tolerance policy.

I told my son, that he did the right thing, and that sometimes he just has to take his lumps, but that boy will never forget what he did for him. And that he'll have a friend for life.

I called the office and asked for an explanation. I was told that he couldn't go into the girls locker room. When I asked what punishment were they going to give to the girl and the other boys? They acted surprised, like they hadn't given it any thought. They said, Oh, it's still under investigation.

They all got detention.
 
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The following is not the single most important thing I have found in my life. However, I think it's worth posting because I know a lot of men are becoming a version of themself they don't really want to be. Keep fighting the good fight, men.

When a man does not feel appreciated in the area of his presence he becomes a version of a man that he can give you and still survive, and I promise you, you will not like that version. That version of him is silent, frustrated, sharp with his words, short-tempered, non-communicative, because he has to become something that he can survive in.

- Pastor Keion
 

bykfixer

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I've learned over time as I become older, fatter and dumber a lot of things that used to (seem to) matter don't anymore. Once impatient and impulsive, now patience is long as train smoke. Even the kids say "we like the kinder gentler seargent dad". So I don't see where pastor Keion is coming from.

Some say if I could go back knowing what I know now.... Me? I'd just be a young idiot all over again, maybe worse because I'd think I'm even smarter.
 
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