Sunday Scribblings: Good Word

Good morning.

Good day.

Good night.

Good job.

Good work.

Good time.

Good riddance.

Good food.

Good company.

Good coffee.

Good friends.

Good.

What is good? Have we ever stopped to think about what is good? This week’s writing prompt has gotten me to stop for a little while to think. This word is said so much in our interactions with each other. In our interactions with ourselves that we don’t really stop to think about what it means. Why is the word there? Have it lost its meaning?

Being a kind of logophile myself, I immediately ran to a reliable friend, Merriam-Webster. I typed in the word in the search bar and was immediately overwhelmed with the results. According to this official resource, good means:

… of a favorable character or tendency (good news)

… bountiful, fertile (good land)

… handsome, attractive (good looks)

… suitable, fit (good to eat)

… free from injury or disease (one good arm)

… not depreciated (bad money drives out good)

… commercially sound (a good risk)

… that can be relied on (always good for a laugh)

… profitable, advantageous (made a very good deal)

… agreeable, pleasant (had a good time)

… salutary, wholesome (good for a cold)

… amusing, clever (a good joke)

… having everything desired or required: content and not wanting or needing to do anything further (I’m good.)

… virtuous, right, commendable (a good person)

… kind, benevolent (good intentions)

… upper-class (a good family)

… competent, skillful (a good doctor)

… loyal (a good Catholic)

… close (a good friend)

… free from infirmity or sorrow (I feel good)

And the list goes on. I told you it was overwhelming. I poured over these definitions and I still couldn’t get a clear view. Good is muddy these days. It’s like a hazy polluted day in Jakarta, where one looks out the window and things in the distance are unclear. (I’d compare this to a foggy day in the Pacific Northwest, but I figured I should accept the reality I am in.)

Is good just about how we feel about something? Is it subjective? Like beauty being in the eye of the beholder? Can something be good for one person and not be good for another person?

Can a morning be good for one person and terrible for another person? Or is saying “good morning” more of a desperate cry? Because we’re holding on to hope that this day will be good, even with the understanding that bad things can happen in the blink of an eye.

Is affirming someone by saying “good job” mean that the job they did was adequate? Satisfactory? Conforming to a standard? Is it good for all time? For all people? Or just for the moment? Maybe “good job” is one of those markers along the vast and treacherous journey in life where we can breathe and say, “That thing you just did? It matters.”

Good riddance. What in holy hell is that? It’s an expression of relief one… expresses… at being free of an unwanted thing. Or person. Is that ridding action, the purging… good? How is it good? Yes. Relief is good, but what about the trauma that needed to be dealt with? What about the pieces that is left behind from the riddance? The process of putting things back together in a new configuration might not be good - not for a little while anyways. How is it good? Can a bad situation be good? Can a season where you’re struggling to put things back to a semblance of normal be good? Maybe the seemingly oxymoronic statement of good riddance is a statement of faith that we are resilient. That one bad season, one bad day, will not break us.

Good grief! Oh, I have mixed feelings about this one. I have a picture of Charlie Brown going around saying this. Good grief! But at the same time, I’ve gone through grief. I still grieve - because grief doesn’t go away, it changes form. Is there such a thing as good grief?

I’m not even going to try to make sense of that right now. Maybe in a little while.

If you can’t tell I’m getting frustrated.

In a world where there’s a lot of bad, how can things be good?

I’m a follower of Jesus, in case you don’t know that by now. I’m not exactly silent about it. There’s an instance in the Bible, in Mark 10:17-18 to be exact, where Jesus engaged in a conversation with a man. The man asked, “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus’ answer probably floored the man as much as it floored me. Jesus answered with a question (like the best people do). “Why do you call me good? No one is good—except God alone.”

To be honest, the first thing I got from that answer was that there is nothing good. That kinda sucks. At the same time, however, it’s the truth. In the sea of subjective opinions and evil being passed off as good, good is nowhere to be found. What Jesus said next also got to me. Only God is good. Whether or not you believe in a God or gods. Or even if you don’t. This is worth a little reflection time.

What if our use of the word good is about us yearning for more than our limited mortality? What if good is a standard that goes beyond the here and now? Beyond us.

When we say the word good, what if it’s us reaching out?

All good. I’m good. Good luck. Good talk. Good day. Good life. Even good death.

What if our use of the word good, as imperfect as our usage can be, it’s us reaching out in hope? A hope that the bad and the evil we encounter in the world, even their potential, is not the end all be all.

And that’s good.