The difficulty of being good...

There is a decided difficulty to being a good person and showing goodness to others. And it doesn't matter if the scriptures and self-help books consider this an important part of the big life picture. Unfortunately, life works a bit differently, you'll see how. Read on.

Very importantly, all that is good is not necessarily easy to implement. In fact, the crappy and irrelevant is generally a breeze. To make matters more frustrating, and the point more poignant, in my opinion.

So, what is the difficulty of being good? Well, in my observation and experience - there are four specific ones.

First, if you are good, but the rest aren't. Now being and behaving good is anyway a tough call, but to end up being the lone ranger is even tougher. The other person is not mean, but just....oblivious. What we do or don't is all up to us, and the others couldn't care less either way. They might be as unmoved if were un-good.

Second, you are good, but the other person is mean and nasty. These are tough and complicated nuts to crack. Not just are you bearing the cross of goodness on your shoulders you are bearing the brunt of an unpalatable person whom you should never have spoken to, to begin with. There are two counts of frustration here. One, to not find reciprocation, which hurts, and second, of utter lack of good judgment on your part. So you end up feeling worse.

Third, you are good, but you don't feel like being good. Goodness sometimes can be a matter of mood - for some people. On good days goodness comes by easy. But how does one deal with a bad mood day in a goodness-worthy situation? This is a direct conflict and generally ends in personal stress and erosion of your public image if you let words wander too far from your intention.

Fourth, and the last, when you are good...and still get flak for it. This is a specially tricky one to deal with (or respond to). You are goodness personified on most days out of 365 (that's an awesome track record, btw) and yet people around you find your motives suspect. They call you a 'saint' or a 'good image manager' and heap obvious sarcasm on your good intentions. I don't have an answer for this one (not that I had one for the others).

In conclusion, I have figured out something on these lines. It is a mistake to be good for other people's sake. It just doesn't go down right - trust me, I've tried. The wretched thing only works when you are good for your own sake. Because that's what feels right inside. Because that's how you can sleep in peace at night. And because that's what makes you smile if you caught your reflection in a mirror. Goodness for the sake of being good works. Only then, in fact.

Now why didn't someone, for the love of God, say that to me right at the beginning.

One of a piece....

God must have enjoyed his little joke, I am sure, when he gave us a will and an intellect to be anyone we wished to be - even two different versions of ourselves if we so desired. One that speaks well depending on what they stand to gain and a second that speaks ill depending on how little they have to lose.

Then the creator quietly allowed us to discover that we are one of a piece. We'll never be decimals, his math is unique. Who we are on the inside is who we must become on the outside. Here he reserved the right to exercise his will.

For the smarter amongst our kind it takes many layers to be peeled for that real self to tumble out. Often it is a rusty, dusty, and a tarnished version of what the maker must have intended it to be. But it bravely hangs in there by the skin of its teeth, hoping one day its companion will realize God's little prank. Of giving us everything, and then leaving us little choice - to be nothing but ourselves.

And yet, we labor on to be that which we are not. All in vain ultimately.

Our mind can never excel in hiding that which our fellow men are gifted in uncovering. Because He never intended to involve intelligence in the finer aspects of his handy work. The most enduring and pristine parts of his creation are molded in instinct and nature. And there integrity, gratitude, goodness, and oneness prevail.

So near yet so far....and certainly never within the grasp of anyone who can't figure out that the joke's on us!