A river wound through the bedrock, forming pools of glacial melt here and there before spilling over the edge of the cliff. The constant roar of the waterfall became white noise as we picked our way from one dry outcropping to the next. Finally, Quin sat down before the largest pool, looking pleased with his decision. Iridescent beams reflected off the waters surface, dancing endlessly on the outlining rock. It was beautiful, and I felt dazed watching the current merge and deform the images of the river bed below. "You spoke to me once of peoples lack of concern for others." His voice jolted me awake, and I nodded. "Well it concerns me, that you hold this understanding within you, and yet you refuse to act upon it. To me you are like a locked box, which holds the key and yet refuses to use it." I looked at him bewildered before responding. "What are you talking about? I do help people, I have helped people in more ways than they have helped me! And every time I have receive nothing back. Its like every selfless act I have performed has been for nothing. Useless, like dust in the wind." "Dust in the wind.." He said grinning. "You see this river?" He said, throwing out his arm. "This river, is a lot like yourself." Not waiting for a response, he carried on. "This river forms somewhere far up north, possibly somewhere we will never see. It carries on downstream before entering a larger body of water, and the process continues and continues. Even though this running water flows far from its original location and covers vast distances, it is still here, on this Earth. It is still on the Earth, not going anywhere eventually returning to its own element. And it is in this way that it reminds me of you." I let the words play back in my mind, before surrendering. "I don't understand" He sighed, scratching his stubble audibly. "This river.." He continued. "It seems like it goes places, like it's on a one way route. But the truth is that it never really goes anywhere. It stays on the Earth, going from place to place before settling in its own element. And you are like the river, in the sense that you always return to yourself. You hold these beliefs in your mind, sometimes even acting upon them, but eventually always going back to 'Me' and 'I.' These 'selfless acts' cannot be performed with a preconceived notion that you will get something out of it. You talk of other peoples lack of concern for their fellow man, and yet you yourself return to your own individualistic desires." Quin lay back on sun bleached rock, closing his eyes and letting the words soak in. He was right, of course, he knew it and I knew it. "How do I change?" I asked quietly. He sat up slowly. "You must take all the concern you hold for yourself, your future, your finances, your very well-being, and divert it to the cause of others. You must let your concern for others well-being become bigger than the concern for yourself, and it is only until you have done this in unrelenting fashion, that you will be achieve true happiness." "I just don't see the point." I said, shaking my head slowly. "I could live my whole life, being a genuine do-gooder, and still get treated like shit. The only way I could see this method working is if everyone on Earth acted this way, for others I mean. Why should I live this way if there is the risk of nobody respecting me, nobody acknowledging my good deeds? What if-" He held up his hand abruptly, halting me in mid sentence. "You see? This is it. Already you are returning to yourself. To your own needs and desires. The only way to live this way is to completely surrender to the fact that there are people out there who don't wish for your help, for your love. In fact there are many people in this world who would wish harm done upon you or me, based on appearance alone. And it is these kinds of people that need our love the most. The basic human reaction when harmed is to retaliate with more harm. If instead we were to retaliate with love, pure unconditional love, the harm done would cease to become harm, and both parties involved would experience a window of opportunity. The instigator, receiving such undeserved, unconditional love, would be dumbstruck. Whether they were to act on this experience and change their ways doesn't matter. All that matters is that they see this loving capability that their fellow man, the victim, holds. And if they remember it, acting in the same selfless manner that you showed them, then hopefully they will positively influence others, who will do the same, and so on and so forth. Many people would see it as useless acts. Why respect others that do not respect you? Well the way I see it is that as long as we have this mentality of 'me' and 'I', we as a human race will remain in an unhappy cyclic existence."