Do Something Nice for Someone Else

I bought Tope perfume the other day.

A few weeks ago, she tried to drag me to a sale that was going on in one of the malls where there were tons of parallel imported stuff not least among them designer perfumes.

The key words here are, 'tried to' as I stubbornly refused to be coaxed from the the comfort of my couch that weekend. We did eventually go to a Colombian party that weekend which happened to be a stone's throw from the mall but still I didnt feel like going. And so we didnt.

Very mean of me I know.

Anyway, the weekend after, I walked to the city library to return some books leaving Tope at home. The city library happens to be right smack in the middle of downtown Auckland. Queen Street which is the premier shopping boulevard in the central business district was right next to the library.

I noticed Smith & Caughey's were open and I knew they had quite the collection of perfumes so I went in and was met with a babble of noise and commotion. There was apparently a perfume sale going on!

To cut a long story short, I spent hundreds of dollars on perfume for me wife and I just need to add, these were hundreds of dollars that I couldnt afford.

But on the way home, I was stepping on clouds and had such a good feeling in the pit of my stomach. After being a meanie the previous weekend, I was imagining Tope's face when i presented the haul to her and I wasnt disappointed.

"Every man for himself" seems to be a survival instinct for most animals. Man however has the amazing capacity for extreme good and charity towards his fellow man. (for evil too but this is not the focus of this post) And there is no substitute of course for the love of a mother for her child.

But if you can explain the irrational love that a mother has for offspring, it is when a human being does something truly charitable for his fellow human with whom he has no filial relationship, one can begin to sense the perfection that a society can and should aspire to.

So go out and do something nice for someone with no expectation of a reward. Do it and see the confusion and joy in the person's eyes, tell the person, "this one's on me". It really does work.