Human Goodness

.3 Good Individuals: Their Life Stories

80 Good Individuals Their Life Stories O ne feels instinctively that goodness cannot be just one act, that it has to be an overall quality, almost innate, like a characteristic smile or tone of voice that is sustained over a lifetime. But, if so, does this mean that the thief on the cross was not a good man even though, after showing signs of contrition, Christ forgave him and said that he would enter Paradise? And was even Saint Paul good? As Saul he was a persecuting bigot, but on the road to Damascus he heard Christ’s voice and converted: he became Paul, a good man, a saint. A major change from bad to good, if it occurs, does so through God’s grace—that is to say, miraculously, as the two examples I have given illustrate. Gradual change, by contrast, can be effected by education. Even then, I am inclined to think that what was 3 81 deemed “bad” wasn’t really bad in the first place but rather was a quality that could be channeled, with proper encouragement and nurturing, to become a virtue, as, for example, rashness into courage , hesitancy into prudence, and indiscriminate spending into generosity. There is also the difference between an ordinary act and one that is, by all measures, exceptional. Simple good manners fall under what I call “ordinary acts.” They contribute to the quality of life, as I pointed out earlier. But it may well happen that someone with exquisite manners on the public stage is evil in private life. Also, small gestures of helpfulness, occasionally rendered, do not reveal the whole person. But when the act is exceptional— Jane Smith’s offer of her kidney to a sick student, for instance—I believe that it is truly revelatory. She is, we say, like that. Of the six good persons I introduce in the following section, two—Confucius and Socrates—are from antiquity. We know very little about their childhood and youth and so cannot know whether they turned from bad to good. All the available evidence indicates, however, that no such shift occurred and that, in fact, all six persons showed remarkable consistency: they were good from the beginning and remained good, their life course being more in the nature of a rosebud turning into a rose than an acorn turning into a tree.  :    82 Confucius (ca. 551–479 BCE) Confucius lost his father at age three and grew up under straitened circumstances under his mother’s care. As a boy he liked to set up sacrificial vessels and imitate the gestures of ritual. He married at age nineteen. He and his wife produced a son and two daughters . The marriage was far from ideal. Confucius, who placed family at the center of his worldview, ironically did not himself enjoy a happy family life. While still a young man he entered the service of a noble family as superintendent of parks and herds. At thirty-two he found employment teaching ancient rituals to a minister’s sons. At thirty-three he went to Lo-yang, the imperial capital, to study the customs and traditions of the Chou royal house. After Confucius had been in the capital for one year the prince of Lu— Confucius’s patron—was forced to flee. Confucius accompanied him and, while in exile, deepened his scholarship and learned to appreciate music. At age fifty-one he became a minister in the state of Lu. The state flourished, but unfortunately the prince was corrupted by dancing girls and fine horses and neglected government affairs. Confucius quit his job. He traveled far and wide in the hope that his prince would call him back or that some other prince would seek his counsel. No such call came. At age sixty-eight he returned to his native state of Lu and busied himself with studying the I Ching and with teaching a group of young men.  :    83 This is Confucius’s life story in a nutshell. Significant is the fact that even as a boy he was interested in ritual, that as a young man he taught ancient customs and traditions to a minister’s sons, and that he felt the need to go to Lo-yang for further study. He could have made himself a brilliant career as scholar and teacher, but he wanted more, which was to serve the people in government . Confucius...