Are you a good person?

​Ladies and gentlemen—fellow travelers on this spinning blue home--
We like to console ourselves with rugged myths. We tell one another that harsh words bounce off us, that solitude is strength, that billion-dollar dreams spring fully formed from lone geniuses, that grinding until we are hollow is the only ticket to success, that faith alone will lift every burden, that the universe will hand us omniscience if we want it badly enough.
Yet if all of this were true, why do we still witness war in every generation, hunger in every city, homelessness beneath glittering skylines, poverty beside unimaginable wealth, and confusion in the very age of information? Why does suffering remain the world’s most common language?
Because reality is unflinchingly apparent:

• Words do leave bruises. Neuroscientists at UCLA have shown that verbal rejection activates the same pain pathways as a burn. Emotional wounds are real wounds.
• Isolation is corrosive. A 2023 meta-analysis from the University of Chicago found that prolonged loneliness shortens life expectancy more than obesity or smoking.
• “Self-made” empires are never solo acts. Even Thomas Edison required a team of 14 “muckers” to turn sparks of insight into working lightbulbs. Behind every celebrated visionary stands a legion of unseen collaborators.
• Muscle alone is never enough. Opportunity, mentorship, timing, and collective effort multiply honest labor into enduring legacy.
• Faith is seed, not fruit. The world does not change because we believe it will; it changes when belief ignites action—when compassion puts on boots, rolls up sleeves, and gets to work.

Deep in our genetic code resides an unambiguous compass for goodness. Mirror-neuron research confirms that when we witness kindness, our brains light up as if we were the ones receiving it. We know virtuous action when we see it: offering a hand, speaking truth without cruelty, guarding the vulnerable, creating space at the table for every voice. We feel the rightness of these deeds before a single philosophy book is opened.
And here is the radical, optimistic truth: goodness requires no footnotes, no disclaimer, no elaborate justification. Harming one another, on the other hand, always demands excuses—some story that paints cruelty as necessity. But even a child can dismantle those stories with a single question: “Would you want it done to you?”
Imagine, for a moment, what becomes possible when we abandon the myth of the solitary hero and embrace the mathematics of we:

• When we pool our talents, scarcity fades. The United Nations reports that the planet already grows enough food to nourish every person alive; distribution is a collaborative problem, not an agricultural one.
• When we channel our collective energy toward shared dreams—moon landings, vaccines, open-source breakthroughs—the impossible folds, again and again.
• When we replace “How can I win?” with “How can we thrive?”, mental health flourishes; Harvard’s 85-year Study of Adult Development names strong relationships as the single greatest predictor of lifelong happiness.

So let us make a new vow:
We will not hoard hard work; we will weave it together. We will not treat faith as a finish line; we will treat it as fuel. We will not ask whether to be good; we will ask how, today, right now.
Because hurting is easy—it merely requires indifference. Healing is harder, but it is also more exhilarating, more creative, and far more contagious. Every act of empathy you offer multiplies in ways no algorithm can fully trace. The ripple of one courageous kindness may outlive you by centuries.
And so I leave you with a challenge that has echoed through every ethical tradition, from Confucius to King—one that only you can answer:
When you picture yourself as a truly good person, what do you see? What choices, great or small, will you make today to bring that vision to life?
The stage is yours. Write a story worthy of the beating heart inside you—and remember, we are ready to help you turn every page.