Positive Deviance

Last Saturday night, my sister and I went out for dinner and planned to go to Showcase afterwards. However, we thought the show started at 7:30, when it had actually started at 7:00. So instead, we went to Brunswick Zones, up near the mall. We played a couple games, and then my sister wanted to go play the kiddie arcade games. They're kind of like Chuckie Cheese games, where you buy tokens and play for tickets, which you can then use to get prizes. I spent two dollars on tokens, just because I'm a sucker for kiddie games. Anyway, I ended up getting the jackpot on a game I played, which was 300 tickets. My sister was really jealous, because she had spent at least five dollars, so I gave some of my tickets to her and then asked the guy at the counter (they had to manually count the tickets, because the machine wasn't working) to just add the rest onto the total of the next little kid to play at the arcade. He was kind of surprised that I wanted to do that, because I guess most people don't say things like that, but he agreed. As my sister and I drove home, I imagined a little kid getting a bunch of extra tickets, and hopefully being happy. It made me happy to think about it.

What people say is true: when you do things for others, you feel good about yourself. Most of the time, society teaches us to keep to ourselves. When other people say things that are offensive, we're supposed to keep quiet. It's considered weird to speak up. Most people ignore homeless people begging on the streets. When people cry, most others ignore them. But if we tried to help other people more, I think the world would be a much better place. Helping others benefits them, but if you need a self-directed motive, helping others makes you feel really good about yourself.