Cafe Dialogue, Motivation and Altruism

Next Tuesday July 24 we’ll be at Second Cup Kensington / Sunnyside (across from Safeway, corner of 10th Street and 3rdAvenue NW) and next Wednesday July 25 at Vendome (940 2ndAvenue NW, just a 5 minute walk across the LRT track from Second Cup). The dialogues start at 6 PM.

The topic for next Wednesday could be expressed as two related questions: What really motivates our behaviour? Are we ever really altruistic? And just for fun, I’ll see if I can find a copy of Robert Ringer’s good old book Looking Out for Number One, in which the author provides his answer to the second question: NO.

Last Tuesday we heard poems by Charles Bukowski, Dylan Thomas, and Paul Eluard; an exhilarating short poem read by the poet himself (Taleb Arref); and two popcorn paragraphs (Arthur and Don). We shared stories from our lives, which may have created a gravitational field around us. Someone sitting just outside our circle (Ray) was drawn toward us and gave us a glimpse of his own story. Beautiful! We learned about a study, published in Neurology early this year, which suggests that eating one serving of leafy greens daily helps preserve good cognitive function. Briefly we discussed what’s happening in Venezuela.

Last Wednesday we found a very quiet spot at Vendome and discussed “using our imagination to identify ways to serve others and thus enhance the transformative power of our lives.”

Did we learn anything new? Yes indeed!

Arthur