i know that this is going to sound a little supercilious, but it is the truth.
i am and want to be a good person (the two may simultaneously be possible) for no selfish reason, not to feel good or superior, nor to make others feel inferior. praise and respect (even for goodliness) are for me neither sufficient nor necessary. i do not act as a good person only to people i like, nor only because i want their affection and admiration (and note that both points are individual and significant). i do not also act goodly because of any consequential utility of being good, or at least, in so far as such utility is superceded by the possibility of an individual's character-development.
if i may feel glad for being and wanting to be a good person, if i obtain any gladness from any singular, any undivided reason, it is that from knowing me, all may consider that it is possible for any man, any one among us, humans, to be good, if one is willing, and honest, and compassionate.
and we each have unto us a measure of these qualities; therefore by good reason and value and desire, it is possible for the everyman, woman and child to be a good person.
you will point to this and that occasion where i fell short in some way. i grant that you will be able to. and you will say, but what is this goodness, if indeed it is even good? i grant that you may castigate one man's ideals, as you may castigate a people's ideals.
but i shall be glad if you think it possible. i shall be glad if you entertain the possibility that there is a good thing and a good light and a good element and a good facet and a good reflection in every one of us. a goodness which given reasonable circumstances may prove self-sustaining. grant me that much, and i shall be glad. and if perhaps you are already so minded, and i have not been a cause for doubt, than i am glad.
