The Good In People

Since my school days, a poem by Hilde Domin has accompanied me.

Don’t get tired,
but
quietly hold out
your hand to the miracle, like a bird.

I read “This Stupid Heart.” It all started when the author, Lars Amend, visited a seriously ill boy, Daniel, unknown to him, in a children’s hospice. Daniel is only 15 years old and knows that he will die soon and he still has so many wishes. To be without a chaperone, to stay overnight in a great 5-star hotel and order as much schnitzel with fries and soda from room service as you want. He wants to kiss a strange girl, write a love letter and send it off, drive around in a cool sports car, see Mom happy again from the bottom of her heart, and write a book about everything. Then Daniel meets Lars with whom he can fulfill his heart’s desires, and together they experience what really counts in life.

Lars gave him new courage to live and taught him that giving up is not an option. Death, while still a possibility, was put on the back burner. Daniel is 20 today. The doctors did not believe five years ago that he would live to see his 16th birthday.

Or did you hear the speech of Auschwitz survivor Anita Lasker Wallfisch? She hated the Germans for years. Then she stopped hating because she realized that hatred is a poison that ultimately destroys you.

Why do I believe in the good in people? Because seeing hatred and evil in people is not natural, but a learned habit or a sign of insecurity. A change of perspective can make everyone see the good in people because everyone wants only one thing:

A Happy Life!

I believe in the good in people because I think that the good of a person sits in his heart and therefore not visible to anyone. Some can show it, some can’t.

By nature I am critical, sometimes even cynical. I could easily not believe in the good in people. After all, a newborn without social interaction, without loving attention, would be a rather dull creature with increasing age, I’m afraid. Yes, that sounds like me, doesn’t it? I could have easily developed quite a negative and pessimistic view of the world and things.

But somehow I’ve always had a sunny disposition, says my grandmother even though I am also very inquisitive.

All through life, even with abusive parents in my very early years, early losses and grief, and during a time later in life when we lost almost everything we had, even at the brink of homelessness, I have never given up my sunny disposition.

Although we hear very bad news every day. Shootings, killings, murders, wars and so much more, it should not be assumed that people can only do bad things. I believe that in principle we are all good, only our personal stories and destinies can change us drastically.

Our core, deep down is a tabula rasa, this is how we come into the world. If I couldn’t believe in the good in people, I wouldn’t be able to discover something beautiful every day, to enjoy life. I would then be practically totally deficit-oriented. Gratefully I’m not! Life is beautiful!”

I fundamentally believe in the good in people, because simply EVERYONE has a good core. For some, it’s just a bit buried, but it’s definitely worth digging up.

So much goodness:

The homeless person who shares his little blanket with an equally lonely animal.
The waiter who adds the second slice of bread to the order, without charging because “you are a regular customer”.
The regular customer who will remember this gesture and will come back.
When someone runs back to open the door for a woman with a stroller and smiles.
The good in people is hope.
The good about people are the mistakes that we actively avoid to make the next time.
The good in man is the desire to give love.
The good in people makes every kind gesture valuable, not meaningless.
The good in people cannot be counted. It’s in all of us.
The good thing about people is that we choose to be good and do good because we want to.

I believe that people are fundamentally good and want to make good connections with each other.

Unfortunately, the social system does not always support this attitude in us in the best possible way. The Dalai Lama says that the capacity for empathy and cooperation is fundamentally inherent in everyone and should be promoted especially in the younger generation. And even if it wasn’t, I’d like to believe in it because it gives my life a different approach.

I am relatively sure that (almost) everyone can learn to show and cultivate their good core.

I believe in the good in people, because even the smiles of others, or short friendly conversations with strangers show me that they have something good in them, even if you may not be able to tell it at first glance.

I am convinced that every human being has a positive core power within them. Every single person in this world has the wonderful ability to use their innate ‘good’ potential so that everyone can benefit from a positive and optimistic world.

I believe in the good in people because everyone has positive things in them, even if you don’t always accept them and form a negative opinion prematurely. I discovered a motto for myself:

Character is how you treat people from whom you have nothing to expect.

I admit it, it’s not always easy but so worth it.

I believe in the good in people because I encounter it every day and I have learned, among other things, to look better, because then you really discover it every day easily.