Wow!
Strikingly similar story to my own currently.
14-year old dog with failing everything but still runs around the yard with few signs of slowing down. Parent in long-term care with some dementia and a severe lack of visitors because of the healthcare lock-down.
It is a part of life and inevitable as taxes but it doesn't make it easier. All I can hope is that I have effected the universe more positively than negatively when I am done and caused some happiness like our beloved old dogs.
Thanks for sharing.
I hope you are coping well with it all.
The universal balance sheet is something I have turned over in my mind since a kid - and then there is the timeline issue, where a good now might be a negative later, a negative now a positive later. Maybe a bad example, but how many lives did the Naxis take, how many lives has Nazi medical knowledge (obtained in the foulest of ways) saved? Extreme example I know - but oven case, the most valuable lessons we learn come from the worst of us.
For the average person, be attentive and don't intentionally harm is perhaps the best we can do with what we know - and learning from our mistakes and adjusting as we know more.
My friend, it is possible you are overthinking it! ;)
I just try and make decisions that will improve the existence of others at least a little. Now I just have to work on my reactions...
Nothing wrong with overthinking, unless it leads to underactioning :)
Reactions are hard things for many of us to contend with, as they happen before we think - so we have to find ways to catch them before they do damage, or make the default reaction a healthy one.