The older I get, the more I appreciate good people. As a society, but not just our society I think most societies, we tend to put people on pedestals for all the wrong reasons. I now look for and try to associate with whom I can describe no better than to say, good people. As difficult as it may be to describe what a good person is, I can recognize one almost immediately. I have been thinking about it a lot lately, and have come down with a few significant characteristics.

One, I think the absence of vanity is important. As important as humility is, fake humility is just that repugnant. A lack of vanity doesn't mean that you don't care how you look or dress. It doesn't mean that you can't be proud of something you have done. I think it does mean that as a fundamental part of who you are, you see what is best in all around you more than you feel you are better than those same people.

I have known one lady for a while, but only in the last couple of months have I seen through her what it means to be without vanity. I have recently become acquainted with a young lady who shows me the same thing. Through their eamples I have tried to re-examine myself and attempted to emulate them. It kind of contradicts my thought that you have to have this as a core to who you are, but I think we can work at becoming better by finding that humility within us.

Fr. O'Grady, our parish priest, has always said that life is a journey and that we make progress not just in years but in becoming who we should be only by tripping and falling and getting back up. So, I don't feel too bad that I have to keep working at it.

Our family has been dealt a tragic blow by the death of my nephew. It is so easy to question your faith at such a time. I respect my sister-in-law so much in her strong faith. She was concerned that her gentle son's death may cause others of us to qustion our faith. It hasn't made me question my faith but it has caused me to think a lot about it.

If there was no sadness in life, then being human would take on a whole new meaning. I know this may be more difficult for my brother and I certainly wish that Steven, his mom and dad and the rest of us had not had to go through this. But if we were never sad, would happiness be the same? I can't help think that what makes us unique among God's creation is that we do have so many emotions. It is so easy during these times to wish we didn't have to suffer, or even more importantly, that those around us wouldn't have to suffer. But that means compassion, one of the truly great emotions, could not exist without suffering. Afterall, you don't have compassion for the person who wins the lottery. Anway, when I get to feeling down, for my brother and his family, I try to remind myself that we wouldn't be human if we didn't have suffering. It doesn't always make me feel better but it certainly makes God's compassion of adopting the human form for our salvation a lot more meaningful.

This kind of takes me back full circle to how I started this post. These people whom I admire so much, show compassion. No, they don't just how it, they are compassion. I know the compassionate people around me have meant so much during our difficult times. They are the people who should be awarded some sort of special gold medal. They are certainly my heros.