Reflections On Goodwill (cont)

When you extend your goodwill in every direction, regardless of circumstances, you begin to see that we are all one.

_Lao-Tzu

Many people, concerned at the trend of international affairs, are deeply interested in finding ways and means of contributing to the solution of world problems in new and practical ways. To this end, the most contagious human quality which can be organised and made effective is goodwill. It seems that we have tried organising practically everything except the goodwill present in human hearts.

Goodwill is something which we all recognise as a factor in human beings but which many find indefinite and hard to define. One of the best definitions is, “Goodwill is the will to that which is good and ought to be”. Goodwill is a heart expression of the fundamental goodness in all peoples which is an evidence of our inner spiritual selves. God is good, His purposes are good, His Plan for humanity is a good Plan. The will to that which is good and which ought to be is a natural quality of the human soul, for we all have a spark of divine life in us. Goodwill is, therefore, very much more than a feeling or an intention, or a kind attitude; it is an energy in its own right because it is a basic element in the expression of God's life in the human family. It is, therefore, a natural quality in all human consciousness.

What will the record of history show as the keynote of the new civilisation if we cannot implement a system of co-operation and sharing voluntarily accepted as the only proper standard of modern civilisation? There is no other group so likely to achieve this most difficult goal as the intelligent men and women of goodwill. They have the needed quality and the capacity to understand. They are in fact in a key position and when they realise it they will assume their rightful responsibility to express goodwill and to initiate action.

The promotion of goodwill is a task worthy of the best of us and, in discovering what is good in national and international affairs and as applied to the social structure, we have a task requiring the greatest hearts and the most brilliant minds. Goodwill does not have to be created. The need is to recognise its reality and potency, to identify and aid its expression and to apply it to world problems.

One thing is sure. The world cannot remain as it is now. Many are thinking about and working for changes that will bring a better world. In the process they are becoming planetary citizens. One of the most amazing of all emerging world changes is that millions of people have begun to think of the human family as one whole. This first essential for the new better world has already emerged.

_{Foster Bailey, Things to Come (adapted)}

I still believe that one day mankind will bow before the altars of God and be crowned triumphant over war and bloodshed, and nonviolent redemptive goodwill will proclaim the rule of the land.

_{Martin Luther King, Jr.}

The transcendent importance of love and goodwill in all human relations is shown by their mighty beneficent effect upon the individual and society.

_{George David Birkhoff}