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Showing posts from November, 2010

I'd Rather Be Good Than Nice

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The Huffington Post carried this article the other day about the difference between good people and nice people. It spoke to an idea that has been rolling around in my head for years. In it, the author Judith Acosta, outlined what makes a good person, and what makes a "Super Nice" person, not a nice person in the classic sense of the word, meaning pleasant, but something a bit more sinister.. I posted the checklists below, but the full article is worth a read. Calling someone nice always smacked of lameness to me. The etymology of the word "nice" says it all: [Middle English, foolish, from Old French, from Latin nescius, ignorant, from nescire to be ignorant.] I am sorry to admit that I could check off one or two items on the "Super Nice" list but can say that I do try to plug away at the Good People agenda. The lesson learned (but somehow always known) is that good people are not always nice, and nice people are sometimes just no good. Both qualities