On Being Good

Several days ago I ended up having a conversation about religion and being good with a coworker. He also grew up in a fairly religious family, although I get the impression that those who raised him have never been able to fully accept him. That he has spent much of his life playing the tune they want to hear, not the one that his fingers know how to play.

 I wonder if this has taught him to better recognize others who also will not necessarily play the tunes that have been assigned to them?

"Maybe it's because you are a preacher's kid," he said, "but I think of you as very good." I laughed, not quite sure what to say in that moment. It isn't that I think of myself as morally degenerate, I just have come to think of being good as shorthand for one who attends church,  one who is happy living out the traditions roles assigned to them based upon gender and age, one who doesn't desire any life outside of the Christian bubble.

I realize that this isn't a standard definition of the word "good," but these sorts of images are the first things to pop into my head when someone else decides that I'm incorrigibly admirable. Have you created your own definitions of otherwise innocuous words or phrases?

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