Small Doses of Good

I was talking with a good friend about TV shows we watched growing up. And being who I am, the conversation lead to several other tangent thought processes in my head. The first is the realization that growing up I didn't have any real male role models. All the men that inspired me and taught me what it is to be a good man and a good person were all fictional. I learned a great many things from men like Star Trek: The Next Generation's Captain Jean Luc Picard, MacGyver, and Quantum Leap's Sam Beckett. 

One of the things I learned from Sam Beckett is that you can do an unimaginable amount of good in small doses and those doses ripple out and cause even more good. You may not see those ripples, or the effects they have, but that good is out there. And, it's out there because of you.

Recently, a friend of mine got married. And like a lot of people, seeing a close friend getting married is something that got me thinking about life in general. One of those thoughts was a small dose of good that I was a part of a few years ago. 

I was at a friend's party in a quiet room that was away from the main crowd of people. (I am not a party person, but I was trying to be social.) The room was intended to be a place for partygoers to rest and drink before getting back out to dancing and mingling with others, but instead a group of people just stayed there and talked about random stuff. 

One topic that came up was a friend, call him Ray (since I don't want to give out real names),  speaking about his horrible living arrangement at the time. Ray had broken up with his boyfriend, but was unable to move out and was stuck sharing a small 1 bedroom apartment with his ex. To make things worse, he had to witness his ex carry on with other partners almost right in front of him. Not only that, but this situation caused Ray issues because he couldn't bring his own dates back to his place since he didn't feel right about replicating his ex's behavior. 

Now, you're probably wondering my dear readers, how did this particular topic come up in conversation? Well, Ray was expressing an intense interest in bringing his current date home with him. The guy Ray was with seemed amenable to the idea, so everyone in the room was curious as to why Ray didn't just make the move and take his date home.  Being a little too inebriated, Ray let the whole story spill out. 

Upon hearing this, another close friend and I immediately got up in arms. We spent the next hour or so showing Ray that there was no reason for him to NOT bring his date home since his ex had no residual feelings for Ray and was proving it with all the sexual partners he was parading in front of Ray. And if there was nothing wrong with the ex moving on, the same logic applied to Ray. After awhile, we managed to convince Ray to get over his hesitations and take his date home.  The party ended, and that was the last I heard of the situation until a couple years later. 

There was another random get together and that party came up in conversation, including the fact that my friend and I convinced Ray to take the date home with him. And that's when we found out that Ray and his date hit it off so much that they were getting married! 

It was a small dose of good and I hope that the love and joy that Ray and his husband have is rippling out to others.