Admirable.

My husband is a Pisces. I was thinking about him early this evening before he got home from work. I was thinking... I have never met anyone so willing to do so much for so many people and ask so little for himself. And, for that reason I step in when I think someone is taking advantage of him. I wont let them.

He is so kind and forgiving. He will overlook so much bullshit. I have no idea how he does it and I ask him sometimes.... how do you do it?

It's not weakness. It's strength .... the kind I have never known.

People make a big mistake when they think Pisces is weak. I don't think people understand what the real definition of strength is .....

I think there comes a time when you have to cut your losses, when holding on further makes you foolish.  But 80/20:  most of the time, I think this is a strength rather than a weakness.

There's a fine line between compassion, enabling, and martyrdom.  Martyrdom, to me, is when you know you're sacrificing beyond the norm and using it to get attention in some way:  Oh, look how bad they treat me, after all I've done!  Aren't I a good person to put up with this stuff?  That kind of attitude.  Willing victim.

Enabling is doing something you think is right and helpful but is actually harmful (giving money, money, and more money to a druggie to bail him out or whatever).  Good intentions that backfire, though sometimes this is done consciously and can overlap with martyrdom.

Compassion... do I really need to delineate?  Compassion is caring and helping but not in an attention-seeking or detrimental way.

It's not what you do, it's the reason why you do it. That's how I live anyway.

I think as times continue to change and more of us encounter greater challenges, this question is going to be asked a lot.

I was raised in an atmosphere of "can do" thinking and "don't give up" attitude. Challenges were meant to be conquered, problems were meant to be solved. Slowly, I see a society confronted with increasingly difficult choices, and an overall attitude of "this is too much" and "we can't handle it." If you think about it, the media constantly presents us with stories of doom, with a lesser concentration on stories of people who do wonderful things or overcome obstacles. We are getting a daily narrative of the boogie man around every corner out to get us. As such, our response to challenges is becoming increasingly limited. "Not worth it," "can't deal with it," "people should help themselves" becomes the normal response.

For Pisces and other signs, I say continue to step outside your comfort zone and help another if you can do it. I don't even care if they are doing it for attention, as long as their help is effective. In fact, I say that those who help others SHOULD get attention. Let them be our new role models. Remember, we're all riding this rock together.

Both.  My MIL embodies this.  A Virgo stellium - Venus, Neptune, Mercury, Moon - opposite Saturn in Pisces.  Three planets, including an unaspected Sun, in the 12th.

I hate it when lower operating people come up out of their swamps and take advantage of her kindness.  That doesn't mean she should stop being who she is.  It means they need to stop leeching her energy.

(This, of course, is why that little ongoing situation with stepson angers me so much.  Worse is his feeling that he's entitled to leech off her.)