Good simply isn’t good enough

 Being a good person isn’t enough. There’s a lot of good people in this world. I’d like to the think I’m one of them. Even those who others deem “bad” see themselves as good. It’s not enough to believe you are good. Good people are bystanders. Good people remain silent when it’s time to rock the boat. Good people believe in fighting an enemy to keep our society “safe”. It's "ours" until blame and shame become the shields on the table. In hating another fellow being, I hate a layer of myself the aligns with what they represent. If I don’t speak up, even when it’s comfortable, I’m not good when it counts. I’m good because I want to be safe. Doesn’t that sound selfish? As if it defeats the whole purpose of what being good for the human race means. Good must be complemented by integrity, by strife, by resilience, and most of all faith in oneself. The cause you’re fighting for may implore you to fight alone. I believe it’s worth it, not sometimes but every time. To become comfortable being uncomfortable. A warrior with a cause. Good and bad have fine lines and very few believe themselves to be the latter. There’s a lot one can learn from their shadow. Otherwise, why would it follow one wherever they go. The enemy isn’t in some far off land. Your adversary may be your lover, your friend, your relative. A lover that doesn’t stand for what they believe when you’re not around. A friend that folds when the chips are down and finds themselves in the pocket of your biggest adversary. A relative that prefers to keep the waters calm at a diner table’s tension. Is good the illusion we tether ourselves with to keep from falling? Evasion of accountability? The excuse that seals all fallibility? The human experience and it’s very many plights know no end. I think we can shift the paradigm and evolve into more than good people. A people that recognize the being within us all and unite in spite of it.