All men are born good.
Good morning. Today, I'm sharing an opinion I read in an old book. This piece is written by a retired judge. His name is Henry H. Curran and the title of his written opinion is "All Men Are Born Good". I think we can all learn something from him:
Some men seem so bad they must have been born that way. That is what we are likely to think, every once in a while, about somebody else. I used to think so, but now I know better. I will not give up a man like that. I will not believe that God started any one of us off that way.
All the little children we see around the world—born bad? No, they were born good, some with less intellect, less physique, less power of will than others, but none of them downright bad. The trouble came later, in the home, in the neighborhood, or in some failure of our scratchy civilization.
It took me a little while to find this out. In school, in youth, in early grown-up life, I supposed occasionally that a man who went wrong had always been wrong. Then I became a judge in the criminal courts. There, the defendants taught me better, made me sure, as I am today, that all men are born good.
That may seem strange. On the bench, I had before me every kind of criminal, the biggest sinners and the littlest, the killer, the stick-up robber, the man who hit his wife in a tenement tiff, the gentle girl who had a mania for shoplifting, the old lady who kicked the other old lady's dog, a thousand other kinds of guilt—and I had to sentence many of them, often to jail. It was not a reassuring background for certainty that all men are born good.
And yet I know they are. I had to talk with all these passing strangers, try the doors of their hearts, learn their lives, put myself in their shoes. It is a very hard thing to do.
Can you really know the other fellow's heart, really stand in his shoes? The judge must try.
And now I know, by the trying, by the biology and religion of experience. There is a spark, a God-given spark of good, in each of those defendants.
You who sit up there today in judgment, take your time and search, and you will find it. Try to kindle it into some sort of fire of kindness or courtesy or unselfishness. Often you will fail, more often you will win.
But never give up. For the spark is there. It always was. All men are born good.
Present Valley
Thank you for this post.
It is hard to think that someone who is doing/has done something evil or mean-spirited was born good. However, I agree with Henry. I have a hard time believing that my loving God would from birth make someone bad. Looking into a babies eyes I see the spark for good.
I know from my lived experience and my work that a person's upbringing, life situation, trauma, and a variety of other assaults to them can negatively impact their choices and behavior.
Sometimes when I am preoccupied with life or caught up in the day's busyness I forget that a small act of kindness can make a difference in someone's life. Thanks for the reminder.
Wilsons Grave
I really hear you. Three things that line up with my experience is we all get hurt, we learn to defend ourselves but not always in the right way, we all have the power to reshape how we think about others or react to their insults. Thanks for your comments which I always find to be genuine and honest.
Present Valley
Thank you.
I feel the same way about your posts as well as comments.
Slipstream
The other day, I found myself judging a man who was sitting outside the market with a sign asking for money. I thought to myself, he's pretty young, looks able-bodied, and he's asking me, a woman at least thirty years older than him, for money. My mind began composing what I was going to say to the guy on the way out of the store, but a voice interrupted my thoughts and clearly said, "Walk a mile in his shoes." I heard it loudly and clearly. I didn't know his story or what happened in his life, but something hurt him deeply.
When I left the market, he was gone, but I sent blessings his way, hoping they would find him and make his day better. I'm grateful for that voice reminding me that I don't know another's pain; therefore, judgment is not mine to dish out.
Wilsons Grave
Wow! That's some powerful comeback from something somewhere! Wherever it came from, that's a force for good keeping you on the straight and narrow. That's some gift!
Bootstrap
I appreciate the judge's words. Something to take in and remember.
Wilsons Grave
Appreciate your comment.
Evangel
Thank you for sharing this. I agree we are all born good. And, in general, I agree that circumstances can create monsters out of good people. But what's difficult for me to accept are those who eagerly accept a job in which they are trained and paid to bully or torture others. ICE agents come to mind. No one with a conscience should accept such a job, no matter how much it pays. It will ruin them forever. And men who decide it's okay to bomb and starve a nation of people such as in Gaza, or force families young and old into exile such as in Ukraine where children are kidnapped or sold into slavery—so much of this is done solely for profit. It's a calculated, premeditated choice to perpetrate evil.
Fortunately, on a personal level, I feel I've known some of the best men one can know. Some are in my family, some in my circle of friends. It's always a blessing to be cared for and loved by the best of them.
Wilsons Grave
From personal experience, I know that loads of men come from fear. We are trying to live up to another's expectations. We are caught between a rock and hard place. We are trying to be better "men" in someone else's eyes. And we do really dumb things in the trying. We lose ourselves, lose our way, even lose our soul trying to serve those masters who fail god. So I get what you're saying. It's tough out there and we men fall so easily from grace. Thanks for expressing your views!
Well Street
It's a work in progress, but when I find myself in a judgmental state, I tune into how I'm feeling about myself or life in general. It's no surprise that when I've taken in too much news or excessive podcasts about current events, I feel more "vinegary" toward others.
Statistically, the vast majority of assaults and blue-collar crime (theft, burglary, drug offenses) are commited by individuals who were exposed to repeated traumatic events and violence when growing up. Like all of us, these people weren't born with a "criminal gene," but were molded by their early (and highly dysfunctional) upbringing. This can't excuse their adult behaviors, but maybe we'll be less quick to dismiss them as dregs of society if we take into consideration what shaped them, as you seemed to do while sitting on the bench.