Almost words to live by, .

Well there are times in life where Equivalent Exchange is present but not always though....

i believe that EE does exist but only in chemistry and maths where equivalence can actually be measured.. i also agree with everyone who's said that the value of our rewards are based on our expectations and that yes as humans our expectations are generally high..

it's kind of funny because some time last year [before i ever watched FMA ^^] i was in this public speaking comp. and chose to do my 5 minute speech on Self- Sacrificing... which relates to EE but without the equivalence.. and when i wrote/presented my speech i really believed in it.. but when i saw FMA my belief turned into EE simply because it was a FMA thing.. hehe.. anyways heres my speech since it basically sums up what i want to say..

NOTE: i'm not expecting anyone to actually read the WHOLE thing but just get the jist of self sacrificing...

Throughout our lives, we make self-sacrifices. We give up our own personal interest or well being so that we can achieve our goals. As humans, we are naturally very social and depend on others for their help. Yet, others have their own agendas, goals and interests too. So in order to work together successfully, it is essential we learn that we must to let go of one thing to gain another. Doing what we don’t want to get what we want is a valuable motif in life. As Author, James Allen explains, “He who would accomplish little must sacrifice little; he who would attain highly must sacrifice greatly.”

Although it is necessary to make sacrifices, people have a choice to make sacrifices for just themselves or sacrifices for both themselves and others. Those who make sacrifice for both themselves and others can be characterized as generous, perhaps even altruistic. It is these people that help bear the weight of life for others in their time of need. Such as charities, philanthropists and volunteers.

It is through self-sacrifice for the larger good that one experiences true joy and fulfilment. Those who are declined to make sacrifices do not know true happiness. They fail to discover the joy of accomplishment and fail to establish the meaning of their own existence in the world. Many people try to avoid sacrifices if they can, because they look only at the short-term results rather than the long-term gains.

Sometimes, despite our best intentions, our self-sacrifices do not always give the results we want. However, it is from those experiences that we realize the nature of our mistakes and help us pursue a more valuable dream. Not making a self- sacrifice denies us of this experience and can have negative consequences.

Imagine a team of soccer players who are against fierce competition. In order for the team to win each player must give up the comfort of inactivity. However all the players merely working hard alone won’t win the team the game. They must work effectively together. If each player refuses to give up their comfort then the team will lose and everything the players would have done, would have been for naught. Not only did they lose, they did not even try. As you can see, this example demonstrates how the positive results of making self-sacrifices can far outweigh the future helpful consequences of self-sacrifices that had not been made.

However in reality it is their duty as soccer players to make these sacrifices.
In society there are many individuals who belong to particular groups which have certain duties that are expected of them. These duties are also known as sacrifices for instance. the working people who must support others, parents who must give up their time and money to raise their children and finally military service men who are required to make greatest sacrifice.

Military service men must be prepared to give up their life for their country. In Australia, military service is voluntary, Those who volunteer in the Australian Defence Forces are willing to give up their life, defending their country. Giving up ones life is the greatest sacrifice that anyone cane make and [pause] it cannot yield them personal benefit. Without these men fighting to defend, Australia wouldn’t be the country that it is today. That Australians can enjoy a certain quality of life is partly due to those sacrifices of those service people.

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So basically in order to grow [or gain] we must make sacrifices and that what we sacrifice may not benefit us, but benefit others... and the reward we gain when we sacrifice ourselves for others is the good..fuzzy..warm feeling you get of helping others.. ^^"

death IS an inevitable part of life.. like we can't control our OWN deaths.. i define giving [sacrificing] as something you personally want to do because you can't expect to be rewarded for something you didn't want to do... so generally.. most people who die, didn't want to and therefore do not gain anything however those who do [through suicide] gain the end to the lives they hated...

lol ok i'm done! sorry if this was long... =="

goodness, that was long Celestial. you must have been very bored.
but I read it and I agree with most of what you're saying. so maybe equivilant exchange isn't all "I do this, I gain this." maybe it's "I do this, WE gain this." maybe it's about the entire human race instead of just ourselves. MAYBE the world DOESNT revolve around me. hm. novel concept, neh?

I think yes, but only sometimes....
´cause you can give somehting and also you can receive something of equal value, but sometimes.... That "something" isn´t the thing that you were expecting, but anyway... you have it n_ñ

I think so...

There were lots of times in my life where Equivilent Exchange came into play...

But i agree with Emily_BrokenAngel... it happens sometimes

I want to believe in the EE though I know that many things in this world are unfair; but still, I think that when you sacrifice something, you always gain something, even if you didn´t want what you gained or received unexpectedly. Remember Alphonse´s quote in the final episode: The world is imperfect and one law can´t explain everything, but if everyone put effort in everything they do, they will be rewarded or gain something in exchange (it isn´t the exact quote, but you all get the picture).

yeah... the equivalent exchange can work with some things but not with all...

I'm thinking if Alchemy is a real equivalent exchange....
I mean to gain something of equal value, something must be lost ...
so does this also mean that if you lose something, you will gain something of equal value ???

hey ....! equivalent exchange does matter! think about it, if you do something, you always get something in return, whether it is an increase in strength, either physical mental or emotional, money, or any type of payment, you always get something out of what you put in so, DO NOT CALL EQUIVALENT EXCHANGE BULL....!!!!!!

if there was no equivalence or order to the world everything would be chaos! but sometimes it's scattered around and different, I sometimes think equivalent exchange as Karma.
and I'm not saying I base everything I think off of animes, it's just an interesting thought.
I mean the author of FMA thought of it, so therefor it can be considered a real thought that you can believe in, everything had to be thought up by someone, it doesn't matter what show its in.
I really hope equivalent exchange is real. It might not be, we might all be fate's doll set, but honetsly, I like believing its real, it makes the world seem so much brighter.
example: I hate being at home because I hate my family, that's a bad thing sense I cant move out yet, I'm only 12.
But, I have many friends that are really close and most people don't have such close friends.
this follows the laws of equivalence, if something bad happens to you, something good will happen in return, even if it's not what you expected

another example: There's this girl named abby in my school who is rich, pretty, mean, and has plenty of friends. though she treats people like dirt, nothing happens to her back.
But, making constant rivalries with people ends up making her more hated then she is liked, even though she's popular, causing rumors to spread about her.
If you take from someone else, you'll have to pay the price eventually.

there are many more reasons,even if it's not real, I love believing in equivalent exchange!