one to solve a block and the other to support confirmations of transfers of coins from one person to another.
that is basically why i decided just to let 'em run. To support the validation of the transfers. Am i wrong? or is this all about mining and finding coins.
You get paid in 2 parts when solving a block: 1 part "out of thin air" (cut in half every ~2 years, currently 50 BTC) and the other part from transaction fees.
You help the network ONLY by solving blocks. If you mine for some time and not solve any block, you could have not mined at all, and the network would look the same.