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How will the miracle happen today?

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Re: How will the miracle happen today?

#101

Post by Noaidi »

JKCalhoun wrote: post #78
bryanlarsen wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And the 0.1% ruin it completely. It takes only one bad apple to spoil the entire barrel. (Literally: the bad apple produces ethylene which spoils the rest of the apples in the barrel). Examples of this phenomenon are everywhere. One bad cop makes the entire force untrustworthy, two to three unruly kids can make a classroom unteachable, et cetera. And a 0.1% chance of a bad encounter with a stranger as a vulnerable pe…

You're gong to throw away a life of living above fear if you focus on the 0.1%. And you'll never know what you were missing. You can stay at home your whole life, avoid travel, avoid meeting people. From my experience (60+ years now) the best times of my life have involved taking those "chances".

Everything you said here is selfish, do you understand that?

"From my experience (60+ years now) the best times of my life have involved taking those "chances"."

You are not focused on giving, it is all about getting. And why is staying at home your whole life something looked down on? Just think of all the carbon it saves going into the atmosphere, if you can that is.

Re: How will the miracle happen today?

#102

Post by polishdude20 »

ryandrake wrote: post #63
Fiveplus wrote: post #32

I couldn't help but focus on the vicarious adventure aspect Kelly mentions which was the "payment" he offered drivers in exchange for the ride. This is a mechanism that has largely been deprecated by the modern attention economy. In the era of hitchhiking, the bandwidth for novelty was low. A driver on a long commute had no podcasts, no Spotify or audiobooks. A stranger with a story was high value. The transaction wa…

> Today, we have near infinite content in our pockets. The marginal utility of a stranger's story has plummeted because the competition is Joe Rogan or an endless algorithmic feed. Not just strangers. The content tentacle reaches even deeper. You can go to a restaurant and see two people (presumably partners, who know and love one another, or friends who at least like to hang out together) sitting together separately…

To be fair, you don't know if that couple is just out for dinner because they didn't make anything at home that day. You don't know if they've been around eachother and off their phones for the past 24 hours. I have the opposite anecdotal experience to yours. Lots of people at restaurants are not on their phones but I've also stopped caring to look honestly.

Re: How will the miracle happen today?

#103

Post by mise_en_place »

BrokenCogs wrote: post #6

Sounds like someone who takes and does not give

It's a distinct possibility. What's more likely is that this person is an example of someone robbed of their own agency, either intentionally or not.

It leads to becoming dependent on others, a true Last Man in the original sense. That's where the resentment starts on the part of the giver, especially when enabling people such as this repeatedly and on long enough timescales.

What's become clear to me is that there isn't anything inherently wrong (morally speaking) with these people, but they need to be moved out of the way so to speak. They cannot be allowed to escape their various containment zones, and the mechanism for their containment must be strengthened.

Re: How will the miracle happen today?

#104

Post by ramesh31 »

rachel-ftw wrote: post #29

Stories like this always feel a little bittersweet. It’s beautiful, but women would be in potential danger in situations like these. And I say that as someone who has spent years the world traveling alone and isn’t afraid of humanity and agrees that the kindness of people is one of the most precious and Hope-building things in the world.

[flagged]

Re: How will the miracle happen today?

#106

Post by krapp »

nathan_compton wrote: post #74
jimbokun wrote: post #28

> Although we don’t deserve it, and have done nothing to merit it, we have been offered a glorious ride on this planet, if only we accept it. This is the core message of Christianity. Undeserved Grace. I will also say though, I find it annoying this guy so easily received gifts from those least able to afford them, and then admits he is not willing to be so generous himself. Did he learn nothing from their example?

This is what Christianity says its message is, but one can credibly read quite a few other core messages into what various types of Christians do.

The problem with a religion where all it takes is one weird ritual to remain blameless in the eyes of God forever is that it's easy to let a lot of shit slide. Christians always say "we're not perfect, we're just forgiven."

So even though that is Christianity's message, Christianity's metagame means if you take it seriously, you don't actually have to put in the work. You're still going to Heaven because grace is through faith and not works.

Re: How will the miracle happen today?

#107

Post by monktastic1 »

exdeejay_ wrote: post #96
thunderbong wrote: post #47

That was wonderful writing. As we go through the daily grind of life, we forget how privileged we are to be alive. I found the following two paragraphs truly incredible. > All of us begin in the same place. Whether sinner or saint, we are not owed our life. Our existence is an unnecessary extravagance, a wild gesture, an unearned gift. Not just at birth. The eternal surprise is being funneled to us daily, hourly, min…

inedible?

Indelible, probably -- though I admit that both trying to eat and trying to delete that passage failed. (I jest -- "impossible to forget," of course.)

Re: How will the miracle happen today?

#108

Post by thunderbong »

exdeejay_ wrote: post #96
thunderbong wrote: post #47

That was wonderful writing. As we go through the daily grind of life, we forget how privileged we are to be alive. I found the following two paragraphs truly incredible. > All of us begin in the same place. Whether sinner or saint, we are not owed our life. Our existence is an unnecessary extravagance, a wild gesture, an unearned gift. Not just at birth. The eternal surprise is being funneled to us daily, hourly, min…

inedible?

Thanks. Fixed.

Re: How will the miracle happen today?

#109

Post by BrokenCogs »

85392_school wrote: post #75
BrokenCogs wrote: post #6

Sounds like someone who takes and does not give

Why would he be helped if he truly doesn't give? He speaks about this a little: the person being aided can reciprocate with degrees of humility, dependency, gratitude, surprise, trust, delight, relief, and amusement which, at the time, was genuinely valuable [0]. [0] Discussed more at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46555688

Do you donate to a charity expecting reciprocity?

Re: How will the miracle happen today?

#110

Post by scotty79 »

gbjw wrote: post #26
scotty79 wrote: post #9

> We are at the receiving end of a huge gift simply by being alive. I always perceived it completely opposite. Even as a few years old child.

You think it's a curse to be alive?

Not sure if I'd use word curse. It at least slightly implies agency.

I'd just say it's a burden and a bother.

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