Deep down most of us want to do good rather than do harm. On the other hand let’s look at the term do gooder. A do-gooder is a person who tries to help others, but in a way that some may consider annoying or impractical. The term is often used in a disapproving way. There may be mixed motives.

In my wanderings on the Internet I found a chap called Jim Haynes who to put it mildly lead a colourful life. His father was a drinker but by his 40s, Jim had sworn off drugs, alcohol, tobacco and even coffee who nevertheless taught a lesson that dominated Jim’s life:

when you do something nice for somebody, forget it immediately.
When someone does something nice for you, never forget it.

There is something very ego-less that I like about this so today’s topic is ( fanfare of trumpets)

Examples of doing good

in the Bible ‘doing good’ means actively performing acts of kindness, generosity and love towards others reflecting God’s character by helping those in need and more particularly living a life that draws people closer to God not through words but actions like teaching, healing, comforting and promoting positive change in the world.

Excluding any references to religion, doing good is acting in an upright moral way and engaging in philanthropy including helping people to help themselves not just going around doing good but making a change internally to those you assist.

What can synonyms tell us?

I enjoy looking at synonyms because they can help me to understand the original word. A variation of this is altruistic where you are doing things for the highest motive. Benevolence is a general attitude when you want to do good, to benefit other people. Humanitarian is when you want to help people to retain their humanity and dignity

What about antonyms?

You could say that we’re talking about the seven deadly sins which are in order pride, greed, lust, envy, gluttony, wroth and sloth. These are the seven behaviours or feelings that inspire further sin. You could describe him as the gateway of entropy or a slippery slope.

These imply individuals who are selfish, self-centred, self obsessed, self seeking, self indulgent, half-hearted. The good guys are not of the self but of the breath of God we could say in extremis. Sloth is an interesting one period it’s a refusal to care for oneself and others, and to love and contribute to the world.

Doing good vs being good

I suppose the essential difference is doing good is what you do in form of charity work or standing up for what is right and it’s about choices, being good is about one’s character embodying virtues such as honesty and integrity and it’s more about who you are when nobody is looking and reflecting your core values.

My observation of good people is that they are not aware of it, they’re just radiating something which is peaceful and which draws me and that is how I managed to rebuild my Christian faith after a rocky couple of decades both as a child and as a young man.

The colloquial use of the word ‘good’.

Good can be a rating of behaviour, something that is satisfactory or positive. We can say you did good or that’s good.  The term good for you has a slightly different meaning in that you have let us say fallen on good luck and have benefited from something or let’s say have won the lottery. The word good has nothing to do with moral values it’s just good fortune, lady luck.

The difference between ‘I am good’ and ‘I am well’.

I find this difference is not clear and is thus inappropriately applied. When I ask people how they are they say ‘I am good’. This use of this word is on the increase. Good is usually an adjective as in ‘she is a good cook’. When people say I’m good I don’t think they mean the moral description of their own virtues but rather that they are functioning well, in other words all is good.

‘Well’  can be an adjective or an adverb. Adverbs provide additional information about how, when, where, or what to what extent  something happens. e.g. he walks (verb) slowly (Adverb).

PS Useless statements – I’m fine

I noticed that Americans say this unless they’re clinically dead and I’ve often wondered why people say they’re fine when they’re manifestly not. I suppose it’s a pleasantry. I’m guessing it originated from a desire to appear OK, avoid discussing personal issues, or simply providing a quick socially acceptable answer often stemming from a cultural norm of not openly expressing negative emotions.

I’m told that you should always ask people twice. The first time you say how are you and they respond ‘fine’ and the second time you ask how they are,  they say I feel terrible. I think we should break through these meaningless introductions with people we really care about. I’m not talking about pleasantries because when i ask how someone is, I don’t really want to report on their life but if you care for someone I feel a bit of probing is in order because you care.