Difficulty of Being Good

23 September 2011

Difficulty of Being Good

Sacrificing your own happiness, giving up your desires, and caring for the welfare of others are all variations of committing acts of goodness. One that loves to do the right thing has a good heart. These good hearts want to love humanity, be caring, responsible and selfless. However, being good is not so easy. We, as human beings, are born with desires and wants that cause us to commit acts of selfishness. Our hearts of desire would rather seek satisfaction for the moment. We are consumed with lust and wanting to do good for ourselves without caring for the welfare of others around us. As a result, we are committing acts of selfishness. Being good is difficult when individuals have the inclination to be selfish and their heart's desire causes them to justifiably believe that their acts of selfishness are actually good for them.

In the Book of Genesis, Eve committed an act of selfishness. She disobeyed the Lord's command, "You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat" (Bible, Genesis 2:16-17). I believe she disobeyed because her heart's desire caused her to consider "the tree was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one [herself] wise" (Genesis 3:6). She followed her heart's desire and by doing so I believe she was being selfish. She only wanted to benefit her own self by gaining knowledge. Eve may have done something good for herself, but that good stems from being selfish. Many may argue that Eve did not previously have the knowledge to distinguish between what is right and wrong, which would have told her to leave the fruit alone. However, I argue that the act she committed was not derived from having any knowledge or perception. It was derived from her heart's desire which was her selfishness. I claim that it was not knowledge that told her to eat the forbidden fruit. It was her selfish desire. Her heart's desire was telling her that it will be good for her to indulge in the fruit because she will benefit from it by gaining the knowledge of right and wrong. Eve did not have any goodness in her due to her selfishness.

Eve's selfishness caused by her heart's desire to receive benefits which appeared good to her relates to Benjamin Paul Hood's, the protagonist of Rick Moody's The Ice Storm, own selfishness and desires. He succumbs to his desires of infidelity and lies because he selfishly wants, "to escape, from his job, his anxieties, his psychosomatic complaints," (The Ice Storm, Moody, P. 21) and, "wanted what he couldn't have" (Moody, P. 21). Ben indulges in his desires that make him selfish and made it appear that his acts of selfishness are good for him. I believe Ben selfishly wants to run away from his responsibilities and desire things that he couldn't have because of the restraints he has in his life. I argue that he only wants to benefit himself and does not really care if his acts of infidelity and lies harm others around him because he is enjoying the goodness, which is really not good, that he has thanks to his selfishness.

In my perspective, Ben is a coward and the reason why his life is so screwed up for him is because he is a selfish, arrogant, and lying jerk. However, he redeems himself at the end of Moody's The Ice Storm by putting the welfare of others, such as Mikey, first before his desires and selfishness. As mentioned before, to be good, one has to be selfless and altruistic. Ben accomplished this by being selfless and only caring for Mikey's body and reporting it to the Williamses, Mikey's parents.

In addition to revealing how one's selfishness can harm the welfare of others, the story of Cain and Abel in the Book of Genesis reveals how the heart's