answer:I guess it comes down to what you decide is “too far”. It’s quite admirable that you not only want to but actually “do” help others. Most people probably feel the urge without giving in to that urge to the extent that they would leave the house and actually work productively toward that end, especially with the devotion that you have described. I certainly haven’t done anything long term to the extent that you have. On the other hand, many people have done altruistic acts that not only put their lives at risk, but sometimes they lose that risk, too, and sacrifice their lives – not quite as deliberately and over as much time as you seem to be doing – but we hear about these things pretty frequently. I’ve done things that, had they played out in a different way, could have put me in considerable danger, and I’ve done that knowing (sometimes) that the effort could have bad a bad outcome. But when I do that knowingly, I consider that the person I’m trying to help is at even more risk. I figure that I’m going to die sometime, anyway, so it would be better – at least to my way of thinking – to go out in a noble attempt to help others. But I would only make that sacrifice – knowingly, anyway – if I thought that it had a good chance of success. On the other hand, I don’t think that “self-sacrifice” is a great idea if you’re doing it over a long term, as you have described, and if there are other ways that you can accomplish the same ends without some form of self-immolation. (I’m not saying that you have a death wish, but if you are knowingly creating a situation that could preclude the possibility of helping as you want to, then is it not counter-productive to continue along the same path?) To give an example which really happened: Last winter one night as I was standing in my front room just looking at the sidewalk and the road I saw an unusual sight. A young woman was walking down the sidewalk, which is not at all unusual, but there was man driving a car and following her at “walking speed”, and the driver and pedestrian were occasionally speaking to each other. That was extraordinarily unusual, especially since she never stopped walking. (You’d think that a friend greeting another friend in this way would stop and they’d talk “normally.) It was so unusual, and seemed so “off” to me that I put on my shoes, ran out the door and started following them, myself. I was about 100 meters behind them (as she continued to walk and he continued to follow in the car at her speed), so I could not speak to her, but several times I called out to ask if she needed assistance. The parade continued. Eventually, the car stopped, she stopped too, and they seemed to be talking through his open window. In about a minute or so she opened the door herself, got into the car, and it took off. I don’t know what might have happened if the man driving the car had been violent, crazy jealous of my “attention” or a kidnapper or worse, but I wanted to offer assistance to the woman “just in case” one of those things was happening. As I walked back to the house, and just before I turned into my driveway, another man in another car stopped to say hello. In this way I got to meet another “guard dog” neighbor who had also seen the scenario play out, and who had been driving by. So I wasn’t alone in thinking that there was something wrong with that, or in wanting to help – and it was good to meet another well-intentioned neighbor that way. All the time that was playing out I was thinking that “this could end badly”. But I still did it because the risk – at the time and in the way it was going – seemed “potential” and “manageable”. On the other hand, I doubt that I would have thrown myself in front of his car if his intent had ever been to run her down. That would have been “actual harm” to me, and very little chance of helping. See the difference? If you’re starting to do “actual harm” to yourself then you won’t be in a position to help, you will need help yourself (which will subtract however marginally from the “potential help that the world could offer” to others), and it may prevent you from ever helping in the future. So knowing all of that but still continuing on the same path sounds not only unproductive but counterproductive. Not rational, in other words.