GREATNESS

Can we take a moment to talk about Greatness?

We can?

Perfect, because I’d like to explain why greatness isn’t so great.

Let’s start with Alexander The Great. What makes him so wonderful? Some might argue he was a military genius, that he conquered country after country and marched across a continent pillaging every village in his path for one desired result. Power and prestige. His legacy lives on 2,400 years later, as his tactics are still analyzed today. Yet, in his conquest, tens of thousands of soldiers and villagers alike were executed, quartered and drawn, and left as an example of his great supremacy. He was deemed a hero, but at what stakes?

The Great Depression is another awkward moment in time I’d like to focus our attention. Here, we went from a Great War, which also killed a whole bunch of people and destroyed the economy and livelihood of many countries around the world. Ultimately, they were left in chaos and poverty. Each government affected by that great war trickled its defeat to the citizens of those individual countries, until one day all the gold, bonds, and cash got lost and fell into a proverbial Money Pit that no treasure hunter found with any success. One big crash and, boom, we got ourselves something Great—a Depression. And call me crazy, but if we looked up depression in the dictionary, I’m pretty sure there’s nothing awesome about it. It’s crippling, both physically and mentally. Just ask the Vets that were affected by that Great war, or any war for that matter.

If you haven’t figured out by now, the term great that we use with ease in our society often reflects death, chaos, and destruction. Hmm. What if we look at good? Would the similarities stay consistent with great? Let’s find out…

One Friday, many moons ago, a group of people named that particular day, possibly in April, Good. What made this Friday so Good? At least three people died on wooden posts that day. And according to the namers’ faith, one of these three men rose from his death a few days later to help save humanity from the evils it had created.

Hmm. I have two specific questions here…

One, why wouldn’t that same group adopt a more positive concept as good, for instance, the following Sunday of the same weekend? Doesn’t it seem that the guy, according to the naming individuals, who is trying to help us correct our wrongs and save us from ourselves get a good day of partying, instead of great depressing silence for a few hours?

Two, if someone rose from the dead in this day and age, we’d call them government experiments or Zombies. And if a zombie roamed the earth, I don’t think that would be a good day. According to many so-called science fiction movies and novels, zombies breed by eating brains. Why would we consider it a very good day?

Even our pop culture movies contain dialog that goes something like, “You missed all the fun,” which refers to a major battle or fight. Why and when did we decide that genocide, poverty, and death are positive? The way the words great and good are used for the previous examples of major events, if I say “Have a Good Day” to a passing human, they should assume I’m cursing them or damning them to a hideous fate, right? I mean, it’s no different then trying to bless someone after a sneeze. This kind of good or kind gesture was stated to stuffy nosed individuals in the Dark Ages–a time when the plague killed people by the millions.

I’m quite sure we can’t correct the lexicon of these past events and no publisher is going to pay for that historical rewrite; however, maybe in the future we can utilize words like good and great on a more positive and realistic level. For example, feel free to comment on my great blogs.

(Thank you for this challenge, big bro.)