What does it mean to be a good person?
Whether someone is a good person can be assessed by a number of factors; generosity, charity, service, compassion and selflessness amongst others. However, all measures of goodness come down to one thing, thinking of others before ourselves. You can’t be a good person if you put yourself first, it’s as simple as that.
When you see children you recognise those who have an inherent goodness to them. They are the ones who see another child crying and go to comfort them. They are the ones who help other children when they are having difficulties, either with school work or other tasks like tying shoelaces. They are the ones who don’t push to the front, but instead make sure others get a fair turn. Generally speaking, these children will become good people. Those who cause others to cry, ignore others in difficulties or push people out of the way are inherently bad people and will remain bad people.
As I have mentioned before I believe that our genes are the main determiner of our behaviour and, though it makes some people uncomfortable, I have to say, after years in education at all levels, that some children are just born bad and get worse throughout their lives. The bullies at five years old are still bullies at fifty five years old. The selfish children at five years old are still selfish people at fifty five years old. Basic nature is fixed and ingrained for all but a few. It is as rare for a bad child to become a good adult as it is the other way round. Mind you, in our societies around the world we reward the bad people in terms of money and influence, making them successful politicians and CEOs with a hugely negative effect on the world in general. So, you could argue that the incentive for bad behaviour is far more attractive than the incentive for good behaviour. It’s far more difficult to be good today when you know it won’t be valued by or rewarded by society except by a pat on the head.
So, be a good person but don’t expect it to benefit you financially or socially. As long as you accept that there are no external rewards you can focus on the internal rewards.
What’s a country that’s at the top of your bucket list?
I have answered similar questions to this one twice in the last 6 months so I wanted to look at the phrasing instead and reflect on our relationship with loss.
‘Bucket list’ is a dreadful phrase that I hate to see or hear. It is based on the English euphemism, ‘To kick the bucket’ which refers to someone dying. In the UK we hate any conversations around death and we retreat to euphemism at every possible opportunity. We have phrases like ‘passed on’ and ‘over the rainbow bridge’ depending on whether it was a person or a pet. We have ‘happy heavenly birthday’ which we use instead of ‘remembering on what would have been their birthday’. I find that phrase mawkish in the extreme. Even if you believe in heaven as a real concept, why would the person be celebrating something that would no longer mean anything?
All of these phrases and many others are used to avoid the reality of loss and I am just as guilty as anyone else of avoidance of the subject of death. It is something that is ingrained into us from childhood and very few of us are able to transcend our upbringing to have clear and adult conversations about death. We can’t change our own history but we can be more direct with children in our own lives to prepare them more effectively but still sensitively to deal with the topic of death.
Next time, instead of using ‘bucket list’ why not refer to a ‘holiday of a lifetime’? That takes the conversation out of the realm of death and into the realm of life where it belongs.
What are your strategies for SEO?
I will be honest and say that even after researching Search Engine Optimisation I have little idea how to consistently implement the strategy. If you are looking to make money from your blog then it’s a prerequisite for success but if you are writing for a non paying audience you don’t really need it.
I have tried to use it on occasion to optimise the title and to optimise my tags, but it has had little effect. I think there’s a couple of main reasons for this. First of all I haven’t tried to apply it consistently and second my blog is far too difficult to categorise because I write about such a range of subjects. If there’s a clear theme to your blog Search Engine Optimisation can no doubt help you to increase your audience. (As an aside, you increase your audience, you don’t grow your audience because the former is a verb and the latter is a noun, and nouns are not acceptable in the place of a verb in any circumstances! Rant over!!)
Whether you try Search Engine Optimisation or not, the most important thing is the writing itself. If it gets people to read and most importantly revisit your blog then it will find it’s audience. I don’t have a clear theme and I don’t have a monetary incentive. If either of those parameters change then I will look again at SEO. Until then I will concentrate on the writing and not get distracted by the algorithm.
Extended Review Part 1 Thrones EP by Karmaa I wanted to start this review with a shout out to Karmaa’s regular collaborator, the producer FPN Norway. He has been working with Karmaa for 5 years, and there is no doubt that his ability to give her the widely diverse sounds you hear on every track […]
Extended Review Karmaa – Thrones EP
Karmaa is one of my favourite modern artists. She is an American rapper, singer and songwriter who made one of my favourite songs of the last decade, Work in Progress. She is funny, angry and never less than brilliant. You really must give her a listen even if it’s not your usual style of music. It wasn’t something I expected to be so excited by, but it’s just brilliant. The Spotify artist link is below and I can’t recommend her music strongly enough. The Q&A in the linked post is great by the way.
