Believe It or Not, Nice Guys Don’t Always Finish Last
The Timeless Principle of Goodness
This is one in a series of essays that was originally conceived as a book for print publication. If you enjoy it and would like to read more from the collection, you can find a sort of Table of Contents here.
Kindness and the principle of goodness are directly connected.
Both generally involve thinking of other people first: their thoughts, their feelings, their preferences. Giving people the basic dignity of treating them as you would want to be treated.
But goodness forces us to take an even broader view. Goodness basically involves doing what is right and good for others even if it’s not the kindest or friendliest thing to do.
How in the world can that be? How contradictory!
Well, not really. Here are some examples:
A young mother stops her infant from running into the street after his favorite ball. The ball gets popped by an oncoming car and the child’s arm is sore from where she grabbed him.
As far as the kid is concerned, Mommy was not very kind. But she did the right thing! That was goodness.
