I love it when people do good things. I hate it when they tell everybody about it. Suddenly, the act is not so good anymore, not so noble, not so altruistic. The telling of it pollutes it, renders it exploitative and self-serving. It paints you superior and depicts somebody else as the grateful recipient of your grace…
I know the argument; that you could be encouraging others to also do good deeds, and that’s pure baloney, since it is enough that the deed was done, that somewhere, at some time, a ‘Samaritan’ did well, it is absurdly unnecessary to know who the Samaritan was, much less to reveal that it was yourself.
The Native Americans knew better. We all should.
