We would often be ashamed of our finest actions if the world understood all the motives which produced them. – Duc de La Rochefoucauld
This article about philanthropist Zell Kravinsky, Kidney donor pushes his altruism to the extreme, appeared in the NY Times in August. Brainwash (the online magazine of America’s Future Foundation) has a posting about it on its weblog including one comment from Kravinsky.
I’m guessing he’s neither the devil nor saint that people are making him out to be. His wife is evidently threatening to divorce him over it but to me, that’s just an indication that their marriage was troubled already. Sneaking behind your wife’s back to donate a kidney isn’t all that different from sneaking to have an affair. Or in my dad’s case, buying a motorcycle without my mom knowing about it and hiding it at his brother’s house. Or in my case, sneaking off on day-long motorcycle rides when my wife thought I was at work. All were signs of troubled marriages.
True, these behaviors were not altruistic like Kravinsky’s but when he says (in his blog comment) “It’s cool when you can save a life without depriving anyone of your company. Some of you “nutjob” and “jerk-off” spotters should try it–for sheer satisfaction, it beats a raised eyebrow and a sneer” it seems to be he was doing it as much for the pure self-pleasure as he was for trying to make the world a better place… as well as taking a poke at his wife, for whatever reason.