PASS IT ON

One thing that probably doesn’t get pass on very much or as much as we would like would be money. Oh I know you might object and say, what about the passing the plate in churches? That to me isn’t legitimate passing it on since whether people admit it or not they are doing it in order to get something in return. I know they may claim it isn’t true, but the same people I’m sure don’t pass up the opportunity to get a tax break for their donation. So in general I’m not speaking of donations in this aspect. They just don’t count from my point of view in terms of this posting on passing it on.

For me, more than anything that is just too darn predictable. And if I wanted to go down that road I wouldn’t even need to write this posting. Heck you can find plenty of places that will bug you to pass it on and right into their wallet.

Nope, for me the pass it on is more important when you are talking about help. Yep, the kind of help that really gives a person a reason to be grateful.

By the very definition of pass it on for me that is when you honestly are passing something on and not expecting anything in return. There is not going to be any bragging, income tax deduction or other reason you are going to have for what you have pass on to whoever.

And the other criteria is that this has to be a good thing. You can pass it on in a bad way that makes a miserable. That kind of sharing is a good thing if you enjoy making people unhappy, but you probably won’t feel as good about it as if you know the person enjoyed the experience.

This admittedly might be a funny topic for a devoutly greedy person such as myself to talk about, but to be honest I actually regard it as in investment of sorts. Which I see as something different than giving with strings attached.

This is when you pass something on that you know will help the other person. It makes their life better and in the process they end up better off.

But in the process you know you may not get anything in return. Still you understood that the one card you are probably going to play with this game is the gratitude card. Which requires that you know the person well enough to recognize that they will actually appreciate the effort.

That is the difference to me. You can go out on the street and help any regular person and feel good about it, but they probably will not care.

However if you lend a helping hand to the person who say is struggling and you do something that will change their life they will most likely be very grateful. Then down the road you have a friend who will pass it on to you if you end up on the needy in. This is to me good politics in a rational way. That is what I call it. Some call it manipulating people. For me if it leaves more than one person with a smile I think I can live with it.