The beauty of goodness

There is beauty in being good, in doing good, and in harbouring good thoughts. The world would have been so much a better place if people who are doing good are allowed to showcase their goodness without being trampled upon by the bad few. I am of the opinion that the people who are doing good are by far larger in number than those who perpetuate bad deeds.

I am not talking of those doing well as the adverb of good insists. You could be doing well in your studies and do well in your armed robbery business!

I should however quickly differentiate between being good and being evil. Good behaviour or act of goodness is primarily attitudinal. A good person is a responsible person, law abiding, and respectful, thoughtful, considerate, kind hearted, selfless, decent and imbued with all attributes of good upbringing and good nurture and culture.

Evil is not the opposite of good. Evil is much deeper than being simply bad. Evil deeds are invariably bad, but they are weightier and of deadlier consequences. A ready example is the case of a wealthy man who has about ten wives and boastfully goes about to entice the only wife of a struggling man and snatches the wife from him. The home being ruined might have been a happy home even amidst the couple's poverty.

That you are not a good person does not necessarily mean that you are evil or even bad. You may by nature be a misanthropist or a kill-joy. You do not mix with people, you are a loner, you do not find happiness in anything and nothing really tickles your fancy. All these do not make you evil or a bad person. Whereas you could be the greatest mixer with an Insurance salesman charm and be a cold blooded murderer! You could be the laughing gas with harmless mien and yet be the world's worst serial rapist.

Goodness is not when you have killed so many innocent people in your quest for power position and privilege and you now begin a reckless act of charity with ill gotten wealth, That does not qualify you to belong in the realm of good people, because the depth of your heart harbours the depth of demonic evil.

The beauty of goodness shows when you perform an act of goodness and you feel very good and satisfied even to your marrow. When you come across a fatal accident on the Highway and you stop, park your car and rush to the scene and not minding that your expensive car and suit may be soiled by blood, you help pick up two of the survivors and rush them to the nearest hospital.

There was the case of a poor primary school teacher who combined his teaching job with cab driving. He was at the airport to pick up a friend who unfortunately missed his flight. While feeling disappointed that his friend was not on that flight he was approached by a Jewish Canadian who was on his first visit to Nigeria and apparently looked helpless having waited for hours without his contact showing up.

The cab driver/teacher willingly offered the now-stranded gentleman a ride to the address he had been given through exchange of letters. He got to the house, discharged the stranger's luggage and even helped him carry them inside. The stranger offered him money but he politely declined it. The stranger collected his address and they both said 'Good bye'.

Months later, invitation letter to Canada arrived. All formalities were concluded. The cab driver/teacher who had never seen the inside of an aeroplane found himself in Canada and all protocols for establishing a huge industry [which I will not name]were concluded. In a spate of 5 years, the cab driver/teacher became one of the richest/wealthiest men in his state! Dividend of a simple act of goodness, the beauty of goodness!

As with the law of Karma where every act of evil is always rewarded [punished]with evil, every act of goodness always meets its gain; though may not be immediately. The Yoruba thought admonishes the wicked to continue in his wicked ways while the good should continue to do good as both acts would be rewarded bountifully.

Philosophers and theologians have wondered and continue to wonder why bad things happen to good people. There is a confirmatory statement that 'because you do not eat beef does not preclude you from being run over by a rampaging bull'. True. It therefore shows that because you are kind you should not expect that you would not suffer acts of unkindness from neighbours or total strangers.

Yet we are all enjoined to do good, be good, and show kindness to whoever comes our way. There have been instances when you do good and the recipient of your good deed turns out to be a relation you have forgotten about. Instances are paraded in Home Videos where a father saves the life of a long forgotten child or a child gives succour to a mother he never knew.

When you are good you feel good. When you show kindness you feel happy. And it does not cost much to be good. In fact majority of good people are poor. Goodness includes sharing. Selflessness is an act of goodness. Even if you have only a piece of meat in your stew, you can still invite hungry friends to share the little you have, an act comradeship.

I love children. I mean children under the adolescent age. Innocent children. Unspoilt children. Uncontaminated children. This perhaps may explain why grand parents are forever fond of their grandchildren. They are beautiful in their innocence. Whatever they say is what they mean. They are the embodiment of truth and truthfulness. Behold a 3-year-old boy, behold the beauty of goodness.

I am inclined to conclude this piece by calling on the entire human race to stand up and rise against the very minute minority who have continued to spoil the world with the ugliness of their unkind acts. The ordinary peasant farmer is invariably not a bad person. In the days of old, communal living and sharing was the vogue. Yes, I do not have to be reminded that there were inter and intra community wars. But who provoked those wars? Who preached the gospel of hate that set brother against brother and sister against sister? It was the few bad leaders who created professional/commercial politics, professional/commercial war mongering, professional/commercial religions that set the world ablaze and drove peace and kindness away from the inner recess of man's heart.

All the good people of the world must unite to enthrone the god of goodness, and let joy and happiness reign hereafter. [All the g in gods must be in small letter g or all in caps, the god in every culture is the supreme in that culture].