A day given is a day we should all feel blessed. Although we may not like our circumstances, we can make the best of them. We can strive to be a better person or accomplish something we have always wanted. I am blessed to have a companion who shows me that it takes strength to reveal who you are, but it helps me do the same, and I have gained power over my past experiences. They no longer run my emotions; I can write more freely and not be ashamed about what I have been through, but I look to help others through my expression. Having gratitude for the things God has blessed me with.
Goodness by Fernando Cordova
What is goodness? Is goodness just a perception in the human mind? Is it just a label that we place on people and actions? Can a person in a state of badness have goodness in his actions? Goodness is in all humans; we veer off from what is good.
Goodness, we can look up and find a definition in the dictionary. We can even find its origins and how to use it grammatically. Yet this does the word no justice. When you see something so good, it tugs at your heartstrings. Think of a Hallmark movie, that is so touching it brings you to tears. Please think of the doctors, nurses, and soldiers who risk their lives to aid those in need amid a war. All these things mentioned above define goodness.
Can we perceive something wrong as good? I would believe not. Being in a place that is surrounded by badness, I think that these two can not be mistaken one for the other. I have seen a guy hungry and another guy feed him, yet there is more bad than good. We can separate the two very quickly; when I was but a mere child, I knew that my father’s abuse of my mother was terrible. Nobody had to explain it to me; goodness is instantly known and felt.
It is easy to label acts as good. I was on a phone call with my wife when our youngest daughter came into the room, a bit troubled. She started talking about how her older sister treated her, how she would receive a packet of homework once she was done with summer school, and how her tablet was not charged. I witnessed such a tender moment that caused me to become a bit emotional. My wife spoke to her so kindly and tenderly that it could only be described as goodness. I was told of a man who went to a park and cooked hamburgers for all the homeless people who lived at this park. This is an act of goodness, yet the story does not end there. The man was cited for not having a permit to feed so many people. The question that should come to mind is whether the officer cited the man, good or bad. The officer upheld the law that in itself should be seen as good. We could attack the officer’s actions, yet we must all consider the law of the land and abide by it, even though we seek to do good acts.
Can we do bad to have a good end result? Take, for example, Robin Hood, who robbed the rich and gave to the poor. Or even a more sinister character, Nino, from the movie New Jack City, which one moment handed out turkeys to the homeless, and the next ordered the murder of an innocent person. If we ask the rich, in the matter of Robin Hood, it is bad to steal from them, if we ask the poor, he is a hero.
The same would go for the character of Nino, yet how can the damage caused by these bad acts be offset by the goodness created? I believe this reveals that goodness lives in us all, yet we choose to do bad. If we have a bad day, we blame others. Why can we not allow the goodness of our nature to overcome the Ill will we may be feeling? Instead of the other way around.
In conclusion, goodness abides in us all. We just need to release it more often. Imagine this world full of goodness. We need to allow goodness to prevail over the badness. We need not to suppress the goodness that is our light to the world.
