5 ms·
Saint Mother Teresa of Calcutta was once asked during an interview how did you manage to help so many people? Her reply was: "I just started with one person".
by swat535 5y ago
Saint Mother Teresa of Calcutta was once asked during an interview how did you manage to help so many people? Her reply was: "I just started with one person".
You don't need to look far to find someone who is hungry; sure many people on this orange site may not be hungry of food but I bet there are many who starved of love. It really doesn't take much to offer an ear to someone in this lonely day and age.
Perhaps it's part of my religious background but I personally find that if the foundation of one's life is based on material things, then one is in a constant state of unhappiness. I come from a country that is considered poor but Western standards, however looking back I realize that the West is wealthy yet poor at the same time. Most are just busy worshiping money, sex, status or power. It's like we forgot about our humanity.
So yes, you may not be able to change _the_ world but you can change _one_ world at a time.
- mvdwoord 5y agoMother Teresa may not be the best example here.
- screenbreakout 5y agoCould you be more specific as to why? I'm sure you have a crunchy anecdote to share :-)
- selimthegrim 5y agoShe basically did the bare minimum, and let people die in her places because suffering would make them see Jesus.
- avgDev 5y agoMother Theresa has caused a lot of pain and suffering. She would get world class medical treatment, while people would be dying in severe pain in her hospice and she would tell them some bs about suffering making them great. They also had poor sanitary practices at the hospices and would contract HIV. She is very much NOT a saint. https://medium.com/lessons-from-history/the-dark-side-of-mother-teresa-b8b9f93df835 https://medium.com/lessons-from-history/the-dark-side-of-mot...
- mensetmanusman 5y agoThe thought of wealthy westerners sipping coffee and writing about the evils of an old lady is on par.
- godfreyantonell 5y agoNice comment. I am in my 50's and a sysadmin for a large corporation. I absolutely love helping people when I can. I am gifted so that I can give. When I'm gone it won't be long before I'm completely forgotten. That's the way it is. Anyone who is finding life too bleak would do well to seek professional help.
- sangnoir 5y ago> When I'm gone it won't be long before I'm completely forgotten. _Everyone_ will be completely forgotten. I think the obsession with "legacy" is a fools errand. Making a positive impact yo those around you, big or small, _for the sake of it_ is a more reasonable approach, IMO. Even the most successful person will be forgotten[1] within a few generations. 1. Forgotten as a person, but possibly reduced to a name and a title without knowing eye color or personality.
- Hallucinaut 5y agoI think we're the first generations where this won't be true actually. Micro-documenting your life and opinions, where overtly on Twitter, pseudo-anonymously here, or in emails and countless mobile photos and videos will add historical colour we can only dream of for past generations.
- sangnoir 5y ago> I think we're the first generations where this won't be true actually The jury is still out, but I wouldn't bet against entropy. Cloud companies do not yet have a clear guidance on what to do with data belonging to deceased users, but if that data is not profitable, it'll likely be deleted[1]. Phones and NAS devices will end up in the attic or landfill: sure programmer-archeologists of the future may encounter some with partially recoverable files, but most of the present day data will be lost. 1. I missed a payment to a SaaS provider by a week (I was traveling) and irrevocably lost data. When the payments stop due to infirmity or death, the data will be deleted.
- selimthegrim 5y agoI would be careful about mentioning Mother Teresa to anyone from Indian subcontinent.