Being good is fraught with dangers in our day and age. I recently blogged about the danger of being good not realising that I was about to have to walk the talk and try and defend the right of being good.
Yesterday a young friend dropped by. He is a young man after my heart, one who decided to take the road less travelled and make a difference. A series of recent setbacks and mishaps were however making him question his decision. The general contempt that someone like me who walks a different path faces in our society, really made me question what all I have been up to and if it was worth anything at all. My heart went out to him and I knew that I had to muster all I could to renew his faith in being good. Not an easy task as much of what he wrote was true: people are not kind to those who take the road less travelled. And as we all know by now being good can land you up shit creek without a paddle. And yet some of us refuse to give up being good!
As I said this was no easy task because the young man in question has responsibilities and needs to build his morrows. He gave up a lucrative position in another land to come back home and make a difference. And he did try as hard as he could investing all he had and more. The end result was failure and even having your work appropriated by deceitful means. This young man was not born with a silver spoon in his mouth. He had to struggle hard to get where he did and somehow it is this very struggle that made him want to be different. So here I am having to defend the right of being good one again. And though I know deep inside that it is the only honourable way to go, I find myself at a loss as there are not many examples to proffer or successful role models to hold out.
Words fail me. I know the young man is contemplating packing his bags and leaving for greener and better pastures where hard work and honesty are still virtues to be extolled. I truly do not know what to tell him to defer his decision and give this land one more chance. I wonder what will make him stay.
great reading…