Goodness consists not in the outward things we do, but in the inward thing we are.
To be good is the great thing. -Edwin Hubbell Chapin
I think that pretty much all of us want to be good at some level, but that some people just aren't very good at being good. They've become hardened, or afraid, or unsure of themselves, and they put on a hard front to try to impress other people or to make themselves feel stronger than they actually are. This isn't necessarily their fault, of course--the ways that people act come from a whole bunch of different influences, and people have learned coping strategies from all sorts of different people in all sorts of different ways. Personally, I would love to think that I'm a "good" person, whatever that means. I would like to be good to others, someone who helps rather than hurts, someone who gives more than I take. I don't know if I achieve this or not, but I do try, even if I'm not always focused on trying to be good or on trying to do the good thing in any given situation. But I think that Edwin makes an extremely important point above--while my focus on being good is usually on what I'm doing to and for others, my efforts may be better directed towards making myself good in my heart, in my core. If I can do that, of course, then whatever I do will simply be good because it comes from a good source. And that would be very, very good, wouldn't it?
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