Good, I guess....

The question was simple: “what word defines you?” As he sat, reflecting on his life, all he could summon was the word Good (definition: “serving the desired purpose or end; suitable”). He was a Good student; a Good husband, brother, son; a Good friend; and, as far as he could tell, a Good employee. But what he was not—painful as it was to digest—was Great (definition: “remarkable or outstanding in magnitude, degree, or extent”). In that moment, he felt his life squandered, for people are inherently Good (i.e., suitable), but only a select few are Great. It is those individuals that make the world better, the rest . . . they just make it a more palatable place to exist.