Friday, January 21, 2011

Hors D'Oeuvres for the Brain #2

How Much are You Prepared to Give?

offers that are such a pleasure to bestow
transactions of smiles
have no real cost, you know
if you are really prepared to give
it leaves you lessened
a sacrifice of strength to let another grow

7 comments:

Shadow said...

...i don't think it leaves you lessened?????

Tabitha Bird said...

anything worth giving takes something from us, but in the end you reap what it is you sew. right?

the walking man said...

I like it. Yet at the same time I might have written it slightly different instead of making the reader supply the missing article. But then I suppose it wouldn't be a brain teaser if it wasn't slightly twisted.

Oddyoddyo13 said...

That last line was so perfect! It just rang with this mystic sort of wisdom (yes, I'm serious about that).

Charles Gramlich said...

You must be in the process of posting something about a Saturday Night live skit. "You old Carpetbagger." lol. Lana and I were just talking about that last night. A far cry from this lovely poem here.

Dr. Cheryl Carvajal said...

We see it as lessening... but only in the petty ways.

Giving is one of the most fulfilling things we can do. We just don't know it because we do it so rarely.

Anonymous said...

Shadow and Shakespeare, I was thinking about how we often pat ourselves on the back for giving. However, there are many instances where giving is a pleasure. For example, if you love to cook, then cooking a big meal for people is giving, yes, but it adds as much to you as it does them. It's very easy. Are we so eager to give when it's hard? When it costs us? That's what I'm talking about. If we give in that situation, we really do deserve praise. That kind of giving is much more rare.

Tabitha, yes, I agree. If we give when it's hard, then the world is truly better.

Walking Man, it's probably a fault, but I do like readers to have to work some for the meaning.

Oddyoddyo13, thank you for the compliment!

Charles, yes, I was working on a post on the train, and as my stop approached, I had to scramble. I mistakenly posted it for like 15 seconds, but the damn thing doesn't come off the feedreaders. Grrrr.