A few years ago I accepted that humans will always pursue those actions which reduce their personal pain and give the greatest pleasure. (Pleasure sometimes transcends mere stimulation to become happiness, a related, but more permanent feeling.)

Just yesterday I once again tried to disabuse a person of the belief that I am 'saintly' in some way: a heady idea that never stops making the rounds among animal rescuers' supporters.

I answered, for perhaps the hundredth time, that I am only doing what reduces my suffering by reducing animals' suffering, and by so doing, I am also increasing my pleasure (and my happiness: a bonus of an increased sense of satisfaction with my life).

The thing about actions committed in the pursuit of pleasure and the avoidance of pain is that those actions can also result in an increase in the happiness and a reduction of the pain for others. Conversely, some actions result in an increase of other beings' pain and suffering, as we sadly know from a steady stream of daily horrors in the media.