Can one become generous through a desire to become generous?
To word it otherwise: must generosity be an end in and of itself? Or it is possible to be generous while desiring to be such?
Ever since completing the stupendous second season of Enlightened, one exchange has stuck with me:
Do you actually want to do good or do you just feel powerless?
Well…both?
The question/response has felt more and more relevant to so much in my life of late.
It boils down to a question about the purity or intention, and whether alternative or ulterior motives are acceptable. Especially if they generate some sort of dissonance when held up alongside each other.
So can someone desire to do a generous thing and desire to be seen as doing that thing?
Taylor Coe 