Is Goodness Valued?
I grew up in a small town and in a household of teachers (in fact the moral practitioners and preachers of the golden post independence era), the above background of my closed sphere upbringing conveys a lot about my groomed world view. I was always made to feel that the true success or happiness is derived from the honest way of life, to put it in simple terms…. its being good that is all what matters.
So the whole set of thoughts and aspirations were built around as being appreciated and approved of your goodness as thats what matters the most. The return by the people in the form of their goodness was never promised and thus being good and just being good ….full stop (no benefits and rewards to be expected anyhow)
The life was very simple….. just be good, do not expect anyone to be good to you, if they are then its your fortune but if they are not it cannot be demanded. The sphere of interactions and scope of reach was quite limited till the young age but when I grew up to reach a new place, a new environment, among new people altogether, the ideals started challenging my emotional status quo. I started feeling the need to be appreciated or at least differentiated on the basis of my goodness quotient.
(By the way, let me define my version of goodness, it is about being honest, true, smiling, positive, friendly, helpful, cooperative, problem solver, responsibility undertaker, care giver, empathetic listener, cautious speaker……phewww, the list is long)
When the reality sunk in after a few days of struggles both at the personal and professional front, I realised that the sense of being good is GOOD, but do the people around value this exceptional trait of your personality and hope the world is not trying to shatter the importance of good people around. Besides being a struggling practitioner I also got the opportunity to preach and persuade people to adopt this trait. Many came with their struggles, and tried to convince me of revising my philosophy and rethink my views about the way the millenials are being brought up.
I am not rethinking at all, because I feel that being good is what the world needs more of, we have had many wars, conflicting households, distrustful relationships, bitter thoughts, arent we fed up of so much worrying about the mortal lives and show more concern about immortal feelings and memories. Let their be more love, kindness, gratitude, compassion, forgiveness, joy, enthusiasm, respect, trust so that the humans can start living their life around these emotions and spreading these feelings. Joy to the world is all we should have to share and pass it as a legacy to our next generation.
Smile more to make each day a sunshine for you and for others around you…..did I ask for too much?????