Be Good

At the risk of running into the wall of a qualified statement, of employing added-value, jaundiced, or otherwise power-packed language, I am going to offer a simple, yet very hard to practice, principle:

E.T. said it best, "Be Good."



I spent a dozen years trying to live up to that simple command. Always, I was nagged in the back of my mind by a little (wicked) voice that would remind me, "You've got more to give. You can be better than you are being right now." I was obsessed with do-good-ness. I was working so very hard to build an empire of altruism, when in fact, I was consumed with my own limitations.

2002: Though I tried to be good, I was never able to live up to my own standards. Though I fielded thousands of others toward being good (service, service-learning, volunteering, etc) and spoke at conferences motivating others to get on the band wagon, there were always others I was not reaching, others who were (as I saw it then) swamped in apathy. Though I gave away most of my income, lived like a pauper, and lived my life's work, I was destitute and empty on the inside too much of the time. Why? because I took being good to an extreme. I went right on past being good (and even great) to being perfect--well, I failed at that, of course, but it was my interpretation of good.

1982: I had a similar problem when I was involved in a faith that had a maxim I grabbed 'hold of: be holy, as I am holy. 1 Peter 1:15-16. Well, that's some pretty big shoes to fit into, a big halo to be fitted for...and again, in that endeavor, I failed miserably. Though I had read the bible from cover to cover three times (yes, wading through all the begats and begottens, by-golly!), I was still not holy. Though I had one of the higher rack of numbers per week on witnessing and conversions (yes, they kept stats on that), I was not holy enough. Though I was memorizing scripture at the sacrifice of my academics, I just could not get it right--enough.

Well, I share all this to say only that one should not be so hard on themselves. Now that I'm an old man, I have a different perspective than when I was a young whipper-snapper. I no longer look at the world from such extreme perspectives, and I'm much less harsh on myself. (Some regular readers might argue this.)

I aspire to be holy, and I aspire to be good. To 'aspire' does not mean simply to wish for it, either. I am practicing my faith and values, and yet I'm not beating myself up too much when I'm less than expected. I write this, at any rate, and I try to believe this, too. Like Stuart Smalley, I just have to live by the mantra, "I'm good enough. I'm smart enough...and dog-gone-it, people like me."