While traveling in Tanzania during October, 1998, I wrote a statement in my Travel Journal, “Roads I Traveled Delivering Health and Hope”, that summarized an emotion-filled observation I had encountered: “The Journey from success to significance is, of necessity, traveled over the road of goodness!”
I suppose that the idea of “goodness” belongs to the subject of ethics. I have tried to take the concept of goodness and imagine myself holding it in my hands and turning it around and around much as I would hold and inspect a fine Burmese ruby from old Rangoon. While rotating the object I would be able to allow the natural sunlight to reflect and expose the incomprehensible beauty of each different facet.
One facet would certainly reveal that goodness is an assertion of value. One subtle characteristic of that facet could even be that goodness might not only reveal what I want, but also what I ought to want. There is a kind of subjective tone to goodness as well as an objective tone.
There also seems to be a sort of eternal component to goodness as well as a more earthly component, like the intrinsic value of honesty just for honesty sake vs. instrumental value of goodness, like a certain goodness in money that would allow or enable me to gain some other good, say food or shelter for my kids.
Maybe, if we could take that Burmese ruby and hold it out at arm’s length, we would be surprised just how beautiful it could be in its striking totality. Goodness, I think is like that. At that distance we all could probably agree that goodness carries with it the distinction of excellence of character. It would apply to the inner quality that makes a person kind, generous, fair, sympathetic and otherwise honorable in character and conduct.
In a general sense, I think goodness would include moral excellence that could be acquired by consciously developing particular qualities of character such as moral courage, justice and wise judgment. Usually, that broad observation of goodness would radiate with the idea of consciously following some prescribed principles of right and wrong. There, of necessity, has to be an author of goodness.
I am very curious and intrigued by the idea and consequences of goodness. But for this study, I would feel more comfortable to let the gemologists study the gems and the philosophers, theologians and ethicists study the etymology of the word “goodness.” Therefore, I would like to submit the following to be our simple “working definition” of the concept of “goodness” herein, and get on with the exciting manifestations, observations and lessons we can gain from this phenomenon of “goodness”:
Humans have a unique capacity to attain, through invitation and development, excellence of character, and based on that character they can choose to become involved in initiating attitudes and actions of kindness, generosity, fairness, sympathy, personal responsibility, virtue, justice and wisdom through their conduct. The genuine initiating and promoting of those attitudes and actions is what we will refer to as “goodness”.
I think we can apply that simple working definition to the saga of Marley and Scrooge, and also apply it to many other exciting examples that will follow herein. I think it will make a lot of sense to see if we can connect the dots between the examples with a simple line that will help us discover that, in deed: “The journey from success to significance is, of necessity, traveled over the road of goodness.”
Next Week: “Goodness” is not a New Concept