Risk Everything (2007)

When I was young in my mid 20's, I've just moved to a hip and hipster neighborhood of a college town lively with grad students, artists and musicians and comics; But I was just a lonely and geeky guy lookin' to fit in and meet and make new friends with the glitsy scene.

One one evening, driving back from staying late on the job, I stopped for a fellow who motioned for help in the middle of the road. It turned out that his car battery died - but peculiarly his battery would not hold charge and his engine would only run if the jumper cable hooked up at all times. So really wanting to help, I offered to get into both of our cars with the jumper cables still connected - like 2 hungry hippos joined at the open mouths and drive down gingerly down 5 city blocks 'till we got to his driveway. Someway, somehow, against many honks and even incoming traffic, we made it. I was elated and thought I had made a friend and had a great story to tell; we exchanged phone numbers, and I asked the guy to have drinks with me some times.

Except the guy never replied back to my messages. And while disappointing, it wasn't a big deal in the grander scale of things in life vis-a-vis major breakup's, "major reorgs" at work or major rifts with family relatives. But with passage of time, I've learned why it still nagged at me - because if I was honest with myself: what I did was actually not very altruistic. I stopped because I was a lonely young man who was looking for some kind of excitement to take on a "hero" role even if only for a moment. A situation I was hoping would garner me some dopamine hit with truly minimal cost to me - and yes even an covert expectation that the stranger would return my " kindness" and maybe even a social reward if I re-told the story [chasing an aesthetic pleasure disguised as an ethical act in the Kierkegaardian sense].

So I don't think I'd be keen to stop for someone now - not because I've become a grumpy old man who don't believe most people are bad and you shouldn't take un-necessary personal risk. But because (a) I think real heroism is deliberately pushing all your chips [at true emotional or material sacrifice to yourself] to the middle of the table for something or people whom you love over a long sustained period of time - not some impulsive act in the moment for an emotional reward, and (b) I think those people stranded on the road should have purchased an AAA membership; or should have carried an radio for emergency contact, brought on additional provisions or a marine GPS for their course on the high seas.

  If you can keep your head when all about you   
     Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,   
  If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
     But make allowance for their doubting too;   
  If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
     Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
  Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
     And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:

  If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;   
     If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;   
  If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
     And treat those two impostors just the same;   
  If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
     Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
  Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
     And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:

  If you can make one heap of all your winnings
     And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
  And lose, and start again at your beginnings
     And never breathe a word about your loss;
  If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
     To serve your turn long after they are gone,   
  And so hold on when there is nothing in you
     Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’

  If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,   
     Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,
  If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
     If all men count with you, but none too much;
  If you can fill the unforgiving minute
     With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,   
  Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,   
     And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!

You always have yourself but consider also how much impact in psyche it might have, will you really have "yourself" after blowing all the savings? It could trigger regret (especially if some opportunity shows up after savings are gone) and could spiral down into depression. It is easy to say "I am strong, I would handle it" before something bad happens.