Chapter 230: Order of Louise
It was no exaggeration to say that Heidi's humanitarian efforts had a monumental payoff for the German Reich, its wounded veterans, and their families. Less deaths meant fewer orphans and widows. And those that were created were well taken care of by the financial support that Heidi had put in place for them via her nationwide charity.
The result of these selfless acts were widespread, and well known, in part because of the influence the von Zehntner family had over the press, but also because good deeds done for their sake alone were a rarity in this world.
Altruism was a concept that existed in theory only. It was an idea of what humanity could be, but in reality would never be. Any time any human ever did something that could be perceived as selfless there was always some ulterior motive.
Vanity, fame, penance, or simply fear of not fulfilling God's will. Every generous act had some selfish motive tied to it, if not driving it entirely. It was simply human nature, and Heidi was no real exception to this.
Albeit her reasons for being so charitable weren't to conceal some greater sin, or to simply stroke her own sense of virtue.
Two reasons which one might argue were the most reprehensible reasons for committing a good deed. Rather, she was genuinely trying to change from the person she had been into something more ideal.
That was the thing about change. It was damn near impossible for someone to change their true nature for the better. It was incredibly easy for someone to break down and corrupted to a level where they could do things once thought to be inconceivable.
But changing into something better, or even wholly good? That was an idealistic notion, a hope that fools clung onto thinking that eventually they might not be the wretch they are now? Could they alter their behavior? Oh most certainly, and even then, the difficulty in doing such a thing in regards to self improvement was seldom easy.
However, one's nature was ingrained in a person's body, mind, and soul. Hence the phrase "a leopard can't change its spots." Which was a common idiom in the English language. People seldom really became a better person on an intrinsic level, and it was why pattern recognition was among the greatest survival skills one could possess.
To be able to understand someone's past behaviors was the ability to predict their future actions. Most of the time this rang true, but on the rare occasions one might "fake it until they make it" and eventually undergo a metamorphosis into an entirely different human being.