The Virtuous Path

The 30th of May, 2025

How does one become a good person? It’s a bit of a simple question, maybe it’s too vague to really define, maybe considering such a thing is a waste of time in the first place. Perhaps some people feel they are too far down the other path to become a good person now. This is something I’ve been ruminating on for a little while.

Of course, you know me, I’m pulling this one from Evangelion, but I think being a good person is actually quite simple. There are many different versions of you, many selves. There is the self that you yourself know, but that is something no one else can see; instead, everyone sees their own version of you based on the things you’ve done that they’ve perceived. For example, imagine doing a kind act like helping someone who doesn’t speak your country’s language. In that moment, that person knows you only as someone who helped. They can’t know the depth of your sorrows or your past regrets or your hopes. They know you only as the kind person who helped them when they were in need. I think the crux of being a good person exists here.

Being a good person isn’t really about walking some virtuous path throughout life flawlessly. It’s as simple as doing these little things for people.

As many of you know, I’m not religious or spiritual in any way. Many struggle with these concepts removed from the context of religion, but I think religious dogma actually complicates things. Many years ago, when I was in high school, one of my teachers asked us to write our religions on a postcard and pass them up to him. He touted that someone without religion couldn’t have a moral system or values. Of course, at the time I was 14, so this left me pondering, but these days, I know how silly all that is. As humans, it’s only natural to desire to be good. To do good things for others, that’s what being alive is all about. To assume that the only reason people act with any virtue or help others at all is because of a threat of eternal suffering is insanely nihilistic and awful.

For Christmas last year, I got one of my coworkers a stuffed animal she had been secretly wanting for a while. When I gave it to her, she was so happy, she hugged it. Her reaction and her joy were far more valuable than the 25 dollars or whatever I spent for it on ebay. That’s what being human is all about. It feels good to make other people happy. I don’t need the threat of eternal torture to do that. That’s what I want to do.

If you are kind and helpful to people, you will be someone who’s worthy of remembrance. No one will remember the self that you know with all the flaws; they will remember the version of you that you have presented them. Make those versions of you a good thing!