Good Morning Folks,

Just to lighten things up a bit:

Every day a woman stood on her porch and shouted:

"Praise the Lord!"

And every day the atheist next door yelled back:

"There's no Lord!"

One day she prayed:

"Lord, I'm hungry. Please send me some groceries."

The next morning she found a big bag of food on her
porch.

"Praise the Lord, "she shouted.

"I told you there was no Lord," the neighbour yelled.

"I bought those groceries."

"Praise the Lord," said the woman.

"He not only sent me groceries, He made the devil
pay for them."

Enjoy your day.

ttbn,

You were crude and rude to me in your last comment.

We know the names of each and every person in our street and share and care for each other. You get one occasionally who wants to hide behind closed doors as though they have something to hide or have a paranoia of people.

We now see the difference in two political systems as demonstrated this week in Melbourne.
1. Based on "Might is right" that is raw democracy when the majority all believe an ideology: Marxist socialism disguised as Climate emergency promoted by the UN. Example Communist China. However it means anyone of a different world view is to be incarcerated and re-educated. However this does not apply to freedom of choice employment opportunities and contributing to the welfare of community, as all education is designed to do that.

2. That which has been the principle of Western democracy, "Love your neighbour as yourself", which allows freedom of the individual to feel accepted in community, and restraints on imposing draconian re-education or imprisonment or death on those who hold differing views. It should allow personal choice on opinions, without threat to others. "Respect your neighbour as an equal of you".

Hey Not_Now.Soon,
You've obviously got a heart of gold mate.
It's not a huge effort to make a sandwich, and it almost feels like a small accomplishment sometimes when you make an awesome sandwich.
A small gesture to try to help in your own way.
I'm certainly not opposed to you helping others if you have the will and means to do so.
I commend your kindness.

That said, I must admit I do have some strange views on things at times
I tend to look at pro's and con's in things.

I've pondered on the idea that possibly the best way to help someone is to not help them at all.

The problem I see is that if you help someone, they'll never learn to help themselves.

They might become accustomed to handouts, and your sandwich - as kind a gesture that it is; will become proof, evidence and justification that 'scabbing pays dividends', and that you don't need to help yourself.

So in some ways you're potentially contributing to their hopelessness by helping them.

To look deeper at this issue, ask yourself if this person wants a 'handup' or simply a 'handout', then find a way to test it.

If you said "If you'd be willing to give my car a wash I'll give you $30" then you'll find out whether that person is in it for a free handout, or whether they actually really want a handup, i.e an opportunity to help themselves.

- That is if they're physically capable of something like that.

I know it takes away the simple basis of human kindness 'helping for the sake of helping';

Helping others most certainly can be harmful if overdone.
People can be nurtured to their own detriment.
Young adults who never learned to wash their clothes, go shopping for themselves or make their own meals.
Kids who grow up to become fully grown babies...

Hey Spencer,
Does your bible not say something about 'feeding a person fish every day' as opposed to 'teaching a person to fish for themselves'?

* Emphasis: 'Handout' v's 'Handup'

You just want to take what everyone else has got to feed the less fortunate with handouts.
But what you're really trying to feed is your own beliefs and ego.

I'm disappointed in NNS, telling everyone about his good deeds. It has been my experience that genuinely generous and caring people don't brag about it; they just quietly go about it, never looking for recognition or reward.