We misunderstand what greatness really is.
Statues are erected, news stories are written, awards and honors are bestowed, and even books are published to honor the achievements of the great men and women of this world. All of this is done, for the most part, in honor of a tiny group of people who stand out from the rest.
We focus almost exclusively—and today even more so, as a result of social media and the constant flow of information—on the rare and most successful people who exist and have existed, ignoring the true engine of the world.
The self-taught British novelist Mary Ann Evans, known by her pen name George Eliot, says that the goodness of the world depends on actions that are not necessarily historic.
The world is sustained by people whose names—or even whose very existence—we will never learn about, neither through the news nor even if we truly wanted to meet them in person.
We often use metrics to gauge the importance of a life based on how visible that life is to others.
Nowadays, we increasingly judge and evaluate people based on metrics—such as the number of followers they have on a particular platform, their annual salary, their cars or homes, their professional title, or how famous they are.
We spend much of our time celebrating and idolizing exceptional people, which, in turn, leads us to feel embarrassed by our own “normality.”
Is it shameful to be a normal person?
But Mary Ann argues that the goodness of the world depends on the decent, everyday people who aren’t singled out, celebrated, rewarded, or featured in the news. They go completely unnoticed by those who aren’t paying close attention to their actions—or by those who aren’t “moved” by them.
A teacher who forever changed—in a positive way—the life of a student by encouraging him one day to explore a particular topic, or by helping him find the answer to the problem he was facing, providing the time and tools that enabled him to discover the answer on his own.
Or even the nurse who, during her night shift, helped a sleeping patient have a more comfortable night, with less pain and suffering.
Or even the neighbor who noticed that the curtains in the apartment next door hadn’t been opened that morning, as usual.
A friend who, without hesitation, answers a desperate call from someone who, at two in the morning, is looking for a shoulder to lean on—someone to talk to and be heard by.
None of these small events will ever open a newscast or make the front page of a daily newspaper. They might not even be mentioned in any social media post.
But just because they aren’t recorded, does that make them insignificant or unworthy of attention?
Quite the contrary.
They are the most important thing in the world.
We should be proud of our everyday, ordinary decency.
We should celebrate and be grateful for our existence, our presence, and the fact that we do our best.
All these thousands upon thousands of millions of small actions build communities, societies, and the world itself.
Of course, we need people who are courageous, brilliant, intelligent, bold, and unique.
But the whole world depends simply on us being good people.
Image by Scott Webb from Pixabay
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