Selflessness is a delightful idea, a quality capable of transforming the world to a better place, but it’s impossible to obtain. No matter how much a person might sacrifice for the benefit of another, no act can be completley selfless. Take for example, a situation where a young man helps an older woman carry groceries across a busy street. The young man is already late for a meeting, exhausted, devastated by a recent break up, and wary of walking in heavy traffic, but helps anyways. On the surface, the act has a resemeblence to altruism; the older woman reaps the benefits of the interaction, while the man seemingly gains nothing. He didn’t receive a tip, given a thanks, or enter the beginning stages of a new friendship; he assisted and went on about his day. The older woman gained relief in a dicey situation and received assistance without any sacrifice.

However, the man and the act, is not altruistic or selfless. On a concious level, the man could be motivated for a variety of reasons. Perhaps he’s seen an accident in a similar situation, therefore he’s fearful of the potential outcome if he fails to assist. He remembers the intruding image of the previous accident, an image lingering in his mind to this day.

Or perhaps he’s never seen such an accident, but knows he’ll feel a miniscule sense of guilt in his gut if he just watches. The assistance he provides prevents that feeling from coming to fruition.

Maybe the man doesn’t acknowledge or have the capacity to feel guilt for a lack of inaction, but he knows what makes him feel good; helping others. He knows small sacrifices, like walking the older woman across the street, makes him feel positive emotions. Whether that be a feeling of importance, security, kindness, or just happiness, he benefits in some form.

Now, the motivation to assist others while sacrificing in some form solely for the purpose of positive feelings is admirable, but not selfless. The man may truly enjoy helping others, but the question becomes, why is it enjoyable to help others? Why is it important that another person is more comfortable or safe? The answer lies in the man’s past experiences and current state of mind.

It could be his recent break up has striped him with a sense of vulnerability, a vulnerabilty he sees, and can alleviate, in the older woman. It could be a subconcious awareness of the possibility to use the selfless act as a valid, worthy excuse for his boss when he arrives late. It could be a subconcious realization, based on past experiences with exhaustion, that acts of giving provide him energy. Or perhaps it could be he’s tired of not-so-irrationally fearing heavy traffic, spurring himself to action in the name of self-improvement.

Even if the man fails to recognize all of the above and is absolutely unaware of his emotions and motivations, the nurture of his life remains. The man has lived a life full of positive/negative reinforcement, punishment, observation, emotions, and teaching that led him to make his small sacrifice.

For a truly selfless act to occur, the giver must be free of past experience, ignorant of any pros and cons, and unable to gauge future feelings and consequences; all of which are impossible.

While altruism is a noble concept, a proof a person can be good, even better is the act of recognizing motivators. Recognize sacrificing for others is beneficial to yourself, and don’t feel guilty about why or that it exists, use it to sacrifice more often.

Life is about finding happiness without smiling all the time.

Life is about lettings tears flow when tears want to flow.

Life is about setting yourself up nice, to live in the moment.

Life is about gaining so much perspective that regret fades away.

Life is everything between the stars.

I'm not really scared of bad guys, even if they got good ties. I've had so many dark times silver linings line my eyes, I've lied, sayin' I'm fine so many times with an underline to my guys that my old lies are starting to align with the real guy, like I'm fine, plus sign. It's like when you fake smile and your inside combines with the fake try to bump the dopamine a little more high, and that's all sci without the fi, it's life. It means you can't always choose if you're low or high but you get to decide to climb or just slide and that's why they say live in the moment, right?

Taking a walk on a humid summer day, you're halfway to your destination when a complete downpour of warm rain surrounds you. You speedwalk and hunch your back in an attempt to stay dry. You walk on the heels of your feet to protect your shoes; your eyes are in a trance on the sidewalk to avoid puddles. At a certain point, the pace lessens, the back straightens, the clothes are drenched, and the eyes no longer search for puddles. There's no sense in trying to walk between rain drops, so you might as well soak up all you can.

Little Billy is tucked under his covers on the Eve of Christmas, using every ounce of his will to remail still and keep his eyes closed; Santa is coming and he needs to be a good boy.

Billy can hear updates from the Santa Tracker on the living room television; he’s almost here!

“Maybe this will finally be the year I see him,” Billy thinks, “I just need to listen for the reindeer on the roof!”

The Santa Tracker turns off and is replaced with slow, creaking footsteps getting closer and closer to Billy’s room; the excitement is too much and he opens his eyes with the purest of anticipations.

Billy shrieks as he finds Santa leaning over his bed a few inches from his face, staring directly into his eyes and smiling from ear to ear.

If I can be candid, I think your loneliness lowered your standards. Yeah, I'm hammered but thoughts don't change when you're faded, it just makes it easier to say it and I'm sayin' ... you break my heart on the daily and I hate it, are you playin'? Nobody can run forever is my statement and I know it's unrelated but your face right now is driving me a little crazy, I feel hazy. I promise I couldn't care less, but I hope you know I literally could not care more, I'm stubborn and push love away and me and my therapist don't know what the fuck for... What? Fore! I'm sorry that was kinda out of left field, I mean time heals all wounds but also got all the kills, so I'm happy to be just standing right here with you and these beers.