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Today's
quotation:
And
when we come to think of it, goodness is uneventful. It does not flash, it glows. It is deep, quiet, and very
simple. It passes not with oratory, it is commonly
foreign to riches,
nor does it often sit in the places of
the mighty: but may be
felt in the touch of a friendly
hand or the look of a kindly eye.
David
Grayson
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Today's
Meditation:
This
might be a nice eulogy for me: "He was a good
person." Would that be enough? I'm not
sure that I qualify as a truly good person, as I can think
of many situations in which I haven't done the thing that
I know to be good, either out of fear or anger or lack of
confidence. I do know, though, that I would
like to be thought of as good, and if that's the case then
I need to make goodness a very high priority in my
life. I need to do the good things: I need to
forgive, I need to listen, I need to be fair, I need to
encourage, I need to be honest in my words and my dealings
with the world.
Sometimes
we start to think that goodness needs to be flashy or
highly visible. After all, goodness sells, doesn't
it? Many books and coffee cups are sold with words
that encourage people to be good, and many television
shows and movies are made about people doing
"good" things (though their motives don't always
seem to be in line with their words and actions).
I
think that the most important test of goodness really does
come from our motives. To me, the only reason for
doing good is to do good. If our motive is to
receive praise or pay or compliments for our good acts,
then we haven't done good at all-- we've simply manipulated
other people into thinking that we deserve their
praise. Good acts can be rewarded, of course, but
they're only good acts when the motive for them is not at
all selfish. One of my concerns about the television
shows that have people going around doing great things for
other people is that the shows are made with one major
purpose: to sell advertising, and the audiences now
have a flawed idea of what true goodness is.
I
want to be good. I don't know if I live up to that
desire, but I try. And I think that each day I get a
bit closer. I would like to reach the last day of my
life and know that somewhere, someone would be moved to
say, "he was a good man." And that no one
else would be moved to say, "Boy, he had you fooled,
didn't he?"
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