1 of 31 Days: What Is It To Be Good
I’ve been wanting to post daily for a while, but that old rascal life gets in the way. I enjoy doing the weekly FIT@50 posts, but I felt like stretching my legs here each day.
Stretching It Out
I hope y’all don’t mind, but I’d like to talk about anything on my heart. I’d also love to see you post up here each day with whatever is on yours.
Through the years I’ve developed a habit of telling people goodbye and adding, Do Good. Leah usually says to make good life choices, so either way, good is the key.
What Good Is Good?
But these days everything is subjective; even what it means to be good. I was raised with a definition of what I thought good meant, but now it seems good is only as good as each person chooses to define good.
A google search defines good as: 1. to be desired or approved of 2. having the qualities required for a particular role.
With this exercise in vagary, I guess committing murder is good as long as you or another desires that you commit that murder, and you have the qualities required to kill.
Confused
So, I gotta confess that I’m a bit perplexed. It feels a lot like the good old, “If it feels good do it,” era. My antiquated notion of good was wrapped in sacrificial service to others, and doing no harm or showing disrespect.
But today’s definition of good doesn’t seem to be so good. I mean really, if all it takes to qualify as good is to be approved of or have qualities required for a particular role, then who is actually going to narrow the expectation of helping others, getting along, and generally not being a prick?
We’re basically free to do as we please no matter the hurt or harm to others. Why? because the gaggle of cohorts will also be good once you all agree to terms 1 or 2 of the definition.
What?
Isn’t that lack of social decency what’s driving much of our behavior today? Whether it’s social media, political pontificating, or daily discourse, we’ve lost the normative standard of what good once resembled.
And that, on this day 1 of 31 days, is not good.
Do Better, Scott