Good – it’s a word we hear every single day. But do we ever stop to think about what it really means? If you were to ask me what I thought it meant, I would most probably need to pause and think really hard – almost as hard as though I were asked how to square root a number that cannot be square rooted.  All silly comparisons aside, have you ever stopped and wondered whether you were a good person?

Yesterday something weird happened to me. I have this ritual every Saturday morning where I take my mother out to the local shops to buy groceries. I usually drop her off first so that I can drive my car in endless loops hoping upon hope that I will find a parking spot. My mother is quite elderly so naturally she does not believe in mobile phones (nor would she know how to use one if she did believe in them) which makes finding her all the more enjoyable. But it is a system we have had in place for years upon years and funnily enough I always seem to be able to find her. So in my quest to find her something happened that made me question my qualities as a ‘good’ person. I’m walking and trying my utmost to pinpoint my target (my mother). If there were such a thing as an eagle walking through a crowd trying its best to find its mother then that was probably what I looked like. This lady walks past me and then trips over. She turned to me with hate in her eyes. She wanted to blame me and curse me and possibly throttle me with her bag filled with exotic spiky fruits (ouch). I looked back and all I could muster was a measly ‘I didn’t even touch you lady’. Well, ok, I won’t lie. I only said it in my head. What I did do was tuck my tail between my legs and walked faster and further away. So the question I keep asking myself now is why I did not turn around and help her up. I feel so bad. So to the unknown lady who tripped over, I want to tell you I am sorry!

What makes it even weirder is that when I returned home a friend of mine sent me a link to watch a short clip on Facebook. I click on the link and see some Russian words on the screen so I start to think that maybe it’s one of them candid camera type comedy skits. Music starts playing and all of a sudden I start to feel some type of energy. The video rolls and the first scene is a man stopping his car in the middle of the road to get out and help an old lady cross the road. My first impression was a big ‘WOW’. Next you see strangers helping strangers in all sorts of way – bogged cars, towing, helping stranded animals and the like. So as the video goes on, you witness kind act after kind act and it almost brings a tear to your eye. Humanity can be saved through the kind actions of strangers. I think back to the lady that fell and the many eyes who had witnessed me walking away without even lifting a finger to help. I am shameful. I will learn from this and improve upon myself to ensure that this does not happen again.

So how do I finish off this post? I guess I will firstly like to say that I have a long way to go to even come close to being a good person. But I do think that it is a journey with no end because being a good person is a process rather than an outcome. It is something that you need to continually strive for because the moment you give up trying, then that is when the world loses hope. Another thing I would like to add is that although we may often see ourselves as the perfect role model, things happen around us to remind us to remain humble. So don’t shelter yourself and open up to the feedback that the world is trying to provide. Take it on board and make a change for the better. I know I will!