Good People

Think of all the good people you know. The people with good jobs, good homes, good cars, and good families who belong to all of the good clubs. Among them are people who actually are morally and ethically good.

It is not a matter of perspective.

It’s a matter of facts.

When I met my new dentist I might have thought she was a good person solely because she gave me a clean bill of health. Believe me, any doctor — even a witch doctor — who would give me a clean bill of health would rate well in my book. As we chatted and I learned about her as a person, I found that what her guardian angel was telling me is true.

This highly educated, talented young woman’s greatest gifts come from her heart. I saw her interact with others. I listened as she spoke of her family and friends and how they are the foundation of her life. It was plain to me why she shone.

From the inside out, that young woman radiated beauty. She glowed God.

Concentrate your mind on the words of Augustine of Hippo. O Beauty ever ancient, ever new. It is that Beauty that radiates outward from the souls of good people.

Augustine believed he came home from the party too late. It’s never too late to start to become a first-class human being.

It is a privilege and an honor to meet people like my dentist. Whatever their age. Whether they are bums on the street or corporate suits.

Most days there are a couple of men who sit begging outside my neighborhood grocery store. The men are always polite. They have a kind word to say. Yes, if I had anything to spare they would be happy to have the money. More times than I can recall, as soon as they receive money from someone, they go into the store to buy food. Sometimes the store employees buy food for the men.

There are far too many people like those two men. Physically, they may be poor. Interiorly, they are decent men. Like the grocery store employees that feed them.

Isn’t that a switch from what we expect?

Every day life is new. People whom we had decided were bums and lowlifes turn out to be decent men. The store clerks we ignore are notorious for their silent goodness.

Good humans with the best of everything shock us when we recognize that they are morally impoverished. The ethically empty are jolted with fear when they are challenged by ordinary good people.

If theoretically good women and men have the moral and ethical standards of pond sludge, what are you doing about it? Are you aware of your actions around these people? Do you keep track of yourself? Do we cave into performing morally corrupt actions to please them? To keep our jobs? Our social standing?

Or do we have guts? Do we have brains enough to admit to ourselves that these people are bad for us?

There is an old saying that hanging out around bad people will bring us to ruin. Who wants to believe that somebody with all the best toys — and can help us get pretty baubles, too — is the worst person to be around?

I admire people in the social and business worlds who deal with corrupt women and men without being scathed themselves.

Listening to our guardian angels, listening to all of the angels around us, we can gain from the wisdom they shout into our ears. We can learn how to move forward in the most difficult of circumstances.

In early summer as a boy my mother would put a paring knife in one of my hands and her potato pan in the other. She sent me out to the backyard to cut the first rhubarb of the season. She cut it, cleaned it and boiled it. She made rhubarb sauce and put it in jars. When she washed the pan, it gleamed for the first time since the previous summer.

That is how our souls are when we pay attention to truly good people,

We shine.