Henry David Thoreau detested slavery. As a protest, Thoreau refused to pay a poll tax that supported legalized servitude and was subsequently arrested and jailed. While in jail, his friend Ralph Waldo Emerson visited him and asked Thoreau, "What are you doing there?" Thoreau responded, "Waldo, what are you doing out there?" He said that we are not merely here to be good in this world; we are here to be good for something.
When I was a young, impressionable child, I remember being told by a Sunday school teacher to "be good" so that one day I would be rewarded by a God "out there" and sent to a better place called heaven. I never bought into such a belief system and eventually learned that we make our heavens and hells right here and now based on where we direct our attention and thoughts.
Moreover, as Thoreau noted, we are not in this incarnation merely to be good; we are here to be good for something and uncover our purpose and reason for being here. Moving toward that purpose will yield benefits even if it doesn't turn out exactly as we may have planned.
There was once a disciple who greatly benefited from his teacher's mentoring. He wanted to repay the teacher by giving him something in return. The disciple decided that, every day, he would bring his teacher two jugs filled with fresh water.
At the beginning of the day, the disciple filled the jugs with water and then climbed to the top of the mountain to give the water to his teacher. One of the jugs was flawed and had a crack in it. When the disciple climbed from the bottom to the top of the mountain, one jug was filled to the brim, but the cracked jug was only half full.
The student trekked to the top of the mountain with the two jugs day in and day out for years. After several years had passed, the cracked jug spoke up and said to the disciple, "I'm so sorry. I know you wanted to bring a full jug of fresh water to your teacher every day. I leaked half the water, and I let you down."
While at the top of the mountain, the disciple replied, “Turn around and look down the side of the mountain. See all the wonderful flowers that are there.” The jug said, “That’s nice, but what does that have to do with me?”
The disciple explained, "Every day as I went up the mountain, I would drop seeds along the way, knowing that the water would spill out along the way to water the seeds. After a while, not only was I able to bring fresh water to my teacher, but I was also able to bring fresh flowers."
This story reminds me that when we set out with the intention to be good for something, something always ends up good. When we intend to make a positive contribution, we always succeed. We only fail when we give up.
A real hero is one who has never given up and continuously seeks to do some good every day. They simply go for it even if what they want does not fully manifest. There is something wonderful taking place in consciousness and character.
When we set our intention to do something good, we change the thought atmosphere on the planet. We also positively affect future generations and even people we don't know on the other side of the earth.
So, as Thoreau reminds us, let's not just be good; let's be good for something. As we do, something extraordinary will happen, even if it turns out different from what we expected.
Peace and Blessings,
James
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