Economics fascinates me. I love the book Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt and Steven J. Dubner. After reading this book I realize that everything in this world is give and take, including friendships, marriages, and dating. I tried to explain this to someone once and I think I offended them. They didn't want to face the reality that the world of dating is also give and take. If a girl is showered with gifts then she got them for services rendered. I'm not saying what those services are I'm just saying that he got just as much out of it as she did. And when they feel like they are giving more then they are getting then the relationship is over. Those services can be both tangible and intangible. Tangible can be expensive gifts, trips, meals, physical time spent together and affections shared. Or it can be intangible such as a listening ear, great advice, moral support, or a good laugh. This not only applies to dating relationships, but also friendships. Friendships are also give and take. If one friend feels like they are giving more then they are receiving then the friendship gets strained and often the friends loose touch.
If you want a real life example, I was taking my boss home the other day and made the comment that I really need to wash my car. He dug in his wallet and pulled out a gift card for 3 car washes. If it wasn't for him not driving anymore and me offering to give him a ride home he wouldn't of given me the gift card. So you see it's all give and take.
I do a lot of charity work. Some things I enjoy doing more then others and over the years I have realized that there are more charity opportunities then I have time for so I am more picky in the things I volunteer for. Now, I try to volunteer for things that I not only am going to get blessing in heaven for, but that I actually enjoy doing on this earth.
Another real life example: I used to volunteer to help out at all the charity events Bank of America Sponsored. This past few years I have been more picky of what events I signed up for. I used to volunteer at Fairy tale town and work on the clean up crew. That was a lot of work and not much fun. This year I signed up for the first shift which yielded the same amount of service hours, but instead of clean up we did set up and then got to enjoy the event after we set it all up.
A few years back I volunteered at the Ice Cream Safari at the local Zoo, an all you can eat ice cream event. My job was to carry around this really heavy hawker box filled with popsicles. It was very heavy and not so fun. The past two years I have worked at the same event, but this time I got to sit in the shade and check volunteers in. I worked twice as many hours, but it was a much more enjoyable experience and the all you can eat ice cream was a nice plus. I also opt out of the events that all we do is set up and don't get to enjoy the event. I did that for a couple of events and it was a lot of hard work for no tangible reward. So all in all I do the same amount of Charity work, get all the blessing in heaven and many earthly blessing too. It took years to learn, but I think I got it down now. There is nothing wrong with doing good for just heavenly blessing, but if I can have the best of both world's why not?! I am finally unlearning the horrible trait I picked up from my Mom as being the Martyr. It's been tough to unlearn, but I think I've about got it.
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