by Travis Casey

Created on: November 01, 2007

The good person is the one who gives up their seat on the bus or train for the pregnant woman, a disabled person or the elderly. The good person gives the shop assistant back the extra change they give you in error, realizing that their job may be on the line if their till comes up short because they gave you more than you were entitled to. The good person stops to help someone change the tire by the side of the road when they have a flat. Or at least checks to see if they are okay.

The good person does what's right, even when no one is looking. The good person does not become involved in underhanded conspiracies, no matter how lucrative they may be. A good person extend themselves beyond the call of socially accepted minimum standards of conduct.

The usual cliche s about love, truth, honesty, integrity are all well and good. But the people who rise above the social standard of being a "good person" are the ones willing to inconvenience themselves for someone else's comfort. The person who will sacrifice time for others. Time these days is a precious commodity. To forfeit one's own time to help others, even strangers, puts these good people on a plateau above those who just do an honest tax return.

I do not believe that being an eco warrior automatically inducts someone into the good person hall of fame. I believe being a good person comes from helping others. Aiding a fellow member of humankind. It is not about riding a current trend saving the planet. Good people are the ones that make sacrifice helping or comforting a fellow human in difficult situations.

One example of a good person has stuck with me over the past 25 years. In the military you come across some of the stupidest, dimmest people ever to grace God's earth. And a great military pastime is to run those people down. Peers, officers and superiors. No one escapes the verbal wrath and ridicule. But we had this one guy in our shop, Brad.

Brad was fairly quiet, kept himself to himself, but was always the first to offer a helping hand to anyone who needed it. As sailors at sea with nothing better to do, we would have our usual evening sessions sitting around talking how stupid everyone else was. It didn't matter who was in the line of fire or what mastery of idiocy someone performed, Brad would always chirp in "Well, he's not such a bad guy". We would talk about our division officer whom everyone hated - and there was Brad with "Ah, he's not such a bad guy".

It really used to drive us mad. How could he possibly see good in everyone? But somehow he did. Brad would never indulge in backbiting, slander or join in the fun of having a laugh at someone's expense. I never heard Brad say a bad word about anyone. Not surprisingly, I never heard anyone say a bad word about Brad.

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