I like to think of myself as being a "Good" person. I believe most of us like to think that we are.
I like to think of myself as being a "Nice" person. And I believe most of us like to think that we are.
So what's my point here?
Being "good" and "nice" — laudable attributes as they might seem, on the surface — are meaningless abstracts without some kind of context to frame them.
Consider your neighbor whom you think of as being a really nice person because she always brings in your trashcans as well as her own, because you're at work and she's home so she can rescue the cans from being run over and crushed in the street on a windy day.
Contrast that with the popular truism that "nice guys finish last," which uses the term "nice* in a completely different context... to describe a spineless milquetoast with no opinion.
Seems to me that a huge percentage of the miscommunication and strife in our world arises simply from our frequently differing uses and understanding of the meaning of quite common words.
"Nice" and "good" are just examples... they are generic words that supposedly have a positive meaning, but they really end up having the meaning we each ascribe to them.
Consider for a moment that I had a "good" childhood, in the sense that I never went hungry, always had a roof over my head, had clothing, education, toys and more... but it was also a horrible childhood, filled with neglect and loneliness. But it could undeniably be described as "good."
See where I am going with this?
One of the ongoing mindfulness practices 
As part of that, attention to the meaning of words and how we use them. It has actually become I bit of a "code" in public situations where it would be ill-advised to speak freely.
For example, "quite nice" while shopping for something (like furniture, perhaps) in the company of a pesky salesperson actually means a "hard no," It's ultimately like shades of my grandparents who could always find something positive to say...
"How do you like dinner?"
Oh, thanks, it's nice and warm!
Bottom line, though, is that we use lots of language that really doesn't *mean" anything unless we intend it to mean. Assuming that others will interpret our words as we had intended is a slippery slope to misunderstandings and hurt feelings.
Thanks for stopping by, and have a great rest of your week!
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Created at 2023-03-23 00:20 PST
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