In Search of a Selfless Good Deed

Is it possible for mankind to be completely selfless? I watched an episode of the American sitcom ‘Friends’ where the characters made a bet about the existence of a selfless good deed. After watching this, I mulled over this question. Although ‘Friends’ portrayed this topic in a light and humorous way, I believe that it is something worth thinking seriously about. A cynic may say that a selfless good deed does not exist. I thought so myself at first. However, after thinking about it for a long time, I came to the conclusion that such thing does exist, although most people do not put it into action.

           As soon as I thought about selflessness, the first person that came to my mind was my mother. Whatever she does, she does it not for herself, but me. She always tells me that her sole purpose of living is to make me happy, and I believe that. However, after inquiring into the roots of my mom’s actions, I realized that sacrificing everything for me is not completely selfless. She receives some kind of personal satisfaction by giving everything to me because she loves me and because I am her daughter. Then, what is a selfless good deed? Is there such thing?

           Perhaps the best of a selfless good deed is found in random acts of kindness, when no one but the person who did it knows that they gave without any sense or need of receiving something back. I once saw a movie called ‘Pay It Forward’ in religion class when I was in 7^th grade. It was about a boy who believed in goodness of human nature and wanted to make the world into a better place. As a result, he created an idea of ‘paying it forward’. He helped three random people at a huge scale like giving a homeless person a place to stay in his house or giving poor people a large amount of money, etc. In return, he asks the people he helped to help three people. Don’t pay him back, but pay it forward. I believe that this act is selfless. Although the boy asks the people to do something, it is not paying him back, so he does not benefit from it at all. Well, clearly speaking, the boy in the movie created this idea for an assignment. However, if a person in real life just helped three random people without asking for anything back, I believe that it could be selfless. I love this concept of ‘paying it forward’ because it implies that a person will help somebody just because!

           So there is something that can be called a selfless good deed, but I do not think that anyone would do it at a large scale, which is somewhat depressing. Thinking of an unselfish good deed took a ridiculous amount of time, and it saddens me to think of human beings as selfish creatures. Many of my friends are saying that something selfless cannot exist! So maybe, just maybe, I should take the first small steps to unselfishness. Not at a huge scale like ‘paying it forward’, but little deeds. I could hold a door open for a stranger, or donate a few hundred wons for some poor people in the streets and subway stations. As the saying goes, a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.