Three Good Things

I don't know how I keep convincing myself that it's okay not to blog in the morning before I leave for class because I can just blog "later." Well, it's later. About 15 hours later than I should have blogged and about an hour and a half later than I should have gone to bed. I suppose I could pull a message about procrastinating out of that, but instead, I want to talk about something else.

I occasionally blog about things I've done wrong, mistakes I've made, lessons I've learned the hard way. Usually, this breeds a little bit of sympathy from my readers, but I'm not really asking for that. I'm asking for them to learn from my mistakes and to be more wise than I had been. I'm not looking for comfort, but I'm also not looking to be made to feel ashamed. When I publicly acknowledge my faults, it's not because I feel the need for criticism. I am already working on all the faults about which I blog, and then some. I do not often need to be reminded of the faults that I admit on my blog.

I do, however, like most people, need to be reminded of my virtues from time to time. So if you'll forgive a moment of self-indulgence (which is another fault of mine, I suppose), this evening, I'd like to remind myself of three good things I did today. These are not the only good things I did today - just the first three that came to mind.

I fixed a paper towel jam in a public restroom.

After using the restroom on the first floor of the Sacramento City College library and washing my hands, I found that there was a problem with the paper towel dispenser. Specifically, the paper towel got caught on the teeth that are used to tear the paper towel into the sections that people use. Whipping out my multi-tool (by the way, thanks to Sariah for giving it to me for Christmas a few years ago. There's no telling how much good has been done with it), I cut and pulled at the jammed paper until I had cleared it out and gotten the paper towel dispenser working again.

I gave pointed some smokers in the right direction.

Recently, Sacramento City College has adopted a policy in which students are asked to only smoke in designated smoking areas. To their credit, the majority of smoking students I've seen have complied with this policy, even though I'm sure it's inconvenient for them. An additional inconvenience came when a designated smoking area was moved from one spot to another. Passing through the old spot, I heard one student express some confusion as to the new location of the smoking area, and I pointed him to the place where the smoking area is now. His act of kindness at going to the new location was greater than my act of telling him where it was, but I'm glad that my willingness to aid and inform others provoked an immediate, almost automatic, helpful response from me.

I cleaned the whiteboard.

Later that afternoon, (or this afternoon?) I was working as an in-class writing tutor in a low-level English Writing class. After helping half a dozen students form good thesis statements for their essays (which was really just part of the job), the class period ended, and I wanted to leave to get home before I ran out of daylight. But I also wanted to talk to the teacher about a resource I had found, so I stuck around and waited while she addressed some questions and concerns the students had. While I was waiting, I thought I'd make myself useful by cleaning the whiteboard, and since I'm intentionally patting myself on the back tonight, I don't mind admitting that it was a large whiteboard, many of the markings on it were fairly well set and took a lot of rubbing to get out, and my arm was sore by the time I was done, but I got the whiteboard clean. It wasn't part of the job description; I didn't have to do it. I didn't have to do any of the kind things I did today. But I did them because I am a kind person.

I'm not saying this so you'll be proud of me. I probably shouldn't care much what you think of me, and I certainly don't blog wonderful things about myself so you'll be impressed with me. But I need to be proud of myself. I need to recognize that I am a good person, despite all the flaws I have and blog about. Sure, I procrastinated today. I didn't use my free time very wisely, but it should be remembered, by myself at least, that I spend at least some of my time today doing good. I'm not a terrible person, despite any and all evidence to the contrary, and the only person who wants me to believe that I'm a terrible person is also the one who wants me to end up in hell. Beside him, there is good in everybody, including me. And even as we go along, identifying and correcting faults, inching our way toward ultimate perfection, we should remember that we're not all that bad and that we certainly shouldn't let our faults discourage us. Instead, we should look for the good in ourselves and each other and give ourselves the encouragement we need to keep going. I'm sure I'll blog again about some mistake I'll make or some fault I haven't corrected yet, but in my heart, I'll remember what's so good about me, and I'll take some encouragement from that, even while I'm working to overcome my faults.