I gave blood today.  For quite a few years, I gave blood every 8 weeks.  Then, after the blood lady stuck my arm in a bad way, and it swelled up and bled later, I stopped donating for a few years.  Lately, I’ve been donating again.

When I donate blood, I think about why I do it.  On the one hand, I do believe in the power of karma; that what you put into the universe comes back to you.  So you could argue that my motives are self-serving.  On the other hand, I know that it’s just the right thing to do, and I try to always do the right thing.  I don’t always succeed, but I do always try.

There was an episode of Friends where Joey was arguing that any time you do something nice, you’re actually doing it for yourself.  Phoebe pointed out something she had done that she hadn’t received any credit for.  Joey asked how it made her feel, and she said that it made her feel good.  He said “See!!”

There is an element of truth to this.  When you do something good for someone else, even an anonymous, future someone else, it does make you feel good.  I’ve been wondering if this is a bad thing.  Are you really doing something selfless if doing it makes you feel good?  I think that the answer is yes.  It’s okay to get some sense of personal satisfaction from doing the right thing.  There are so many instances in life where we don’t get recognition from others for the things that we do, so it makes sense to me that we should learn to give ourselves that recognition.  If the sense of satisfaction encourages us to do more good in the future, then everyone benefits; and isn’t that really the whole point?

When I told Leah about this, she said that the reason people do good things is because it makes them feel good.  Growing up, I was taught that you should never feel good about anything that you do, and you should absolutely never feel proud of yourself; because pride is a sin against god and you’re taking credit for his actions.  This is just one of many things that seems normal to most people, but I have a very different perspective based on my unhealthy childhood.  I am giving myself permission to feel good about giving blood.