do good without looking at who
Some time ago a huge discussion on Twitter caught my eye: a journalist wrote an article on a blog of a major internet portal outraged because there are people who bother to defend the rights and help abandoned (or who suffer abuse) animals rather than help children or people in need. Contrary manifestations (with which I totally agree) appeared immediately.
My questions after reading the text which had no valid arguments and was shallow were:
- Since when should we criticize the selfless good that is being done by anyone regardless of which cause or who is favored? In more direct and clear words, if there is someone doing good, why anyone should notice to whom this good is being done? Wouldn’t be correct to admire, applaud and be inspired by these actions to also help (then yes) those who you want to help?
- What people who criticize are actually doing to help the entities that defend what they believe is important? Are they collaborating so that orphaned children are well established and find a home, if they think children are more important than cats or dogs? Are they planting trees or sold the car and now are riding bikes because they believe that the preservation of the environment is more important?
The truth is that in most cases those who spend their time criticizing supportive attitudes of others does very little for their own causes or the ones they say they believe in.
I help institutions that does pet adoption campaigns and neutering stray dogs and cats, but that doesn’t mean I stop to help or consider less the situation of children living in poor conditions, to name just one example. Quite the opposite. I spent several months of my life for many years knitting wool hats that were donated in the headlights in the colder seasons. One of the ways I’ve found to help improve (at least a little) the world where I live.
I never wanted to convince people about the nobility — or not — of my choices. If I saw someone helping a blind man across the street, I admired and hoped that more people had the same attitude around the world. The same happened every time I saw someone paying attention to a homeless elderly, a child, a dog, a cat. I believe that the value is in the intention and in the gesture, not in the quantity or the frequency.
There are people who can but not much. There are people who can but not always. But I admire those who, at some point, with the possibilities they have, do what they can, but do. They perform. They put into action.
Do you read for lonely elderly in nursing homes? Do you take care of children who have suffered abuse? Do you take care, shelters and search for homes for cats and dogs abandoned on the streets? For me all attitudes have value and, if we each one of us choose your cause and do something to make it better, the world will be — believe it — a much better place in some time.
I believe the error when it comes to this subject (and perhaps to any other) is to want to be the owner of the reason. The one who knows all. To want that your truth to be better than the truth of the other. To criticize caring attitudes of someone because you want that person to fight for causes that are important to you.
The good is magnanimous. I’m pretty sure that good people, if they had conditions, would not choose: they’d help all beings — human or not — to have a better existence or at least a worthy one. But most of us have limits (either money or time) and we need to make choices. We need to focus on a goal to accomplish it effectively, efficiently, to make a difference — without regard to the size of it. For if there is a “truth” in all this, it is that every little gesture of solidarity, when added to all other small gestures, makes a difference.
So choose your causes, fight for them, admire those who do what you can’t do for other beings and invest your time wisely. But if you don’t do any of this, please save others from hypocrites and rhetorical arguments and go take good care of your own life. This already requires a huge effort to be well done.
The world — a better one — thank you.
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[This is an English version from the original article > [fazer o bem sem olhar a quem]
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