Oasis

Sometimes, an oasis is not such a good thing.  If someone is living in a mess of their own making, and they realize they cannot escape their mess, they wallow in hopelessness and bad behavior.  Then someone comes along who lives in the same mess.  This person is an "oasis" for ongoing bad behavior, which will now be enjoyed with another like-minded person.  I always found it uplifting to be bad with another person who liked my kind of badness.  Bad behavior can be transformed into "fun" when shared with someone else who is just as bad.  The shame, guilt and hopelessness give way to laughter and forgetfulness.  Sick? Yes.  It is the behavior of addiction.  But then can the same principle work for goodness and transformation?  Can one person, on a spiritual path, but not being preachy, help someone else who might lack the strength and courage left to their own weak powers?  I say yes.  We do not evolve alone.  There is an "ecology" of goodness.