The inherent risk of helping others
I had a group phone call with two of my friends yesterday. We were discussing a situation where one of the friends wanted to help his friend, but that had a risk of putting him in disfavour with some other people who were not directly connected with him. The situation does not matter.
And during the discussion, we realized that there is always an inherent risk in helping others. In some situations, helping someone will put you at risk of losing social bonding with someone else like, say, the elders. Or the person receiving the help might take advantage of you and you end up being a fool for trying to help someone. Or your help, due to some unforeseen things, worsens the lives of others. You will feel guilty for helping then. There is that risk as well.
I have observed some people mitigate this risk by not helping at all and calling it not getting involved in the lives of others. Sure, there are some situations where helping others will put a strain on you that you cannot bear and don’t want to bear and that is perfectly fine to not help someone in such a situation. If you have enough in your glass, only then you can share it with others.
But if you can help, then you have to bear that risk that you might lose something by trying to help. You should not help others to gain something in the first place. You won’t be able to continue doing that. Help someone because your help will improve their life.
Understand the risk, and if you can bear it, then go ahead and try to make someone’s life better.
