At a party recently, a gentleman (and I use the term loosely!) had a little too many and was acting real obnoxious. That's the only way I can describe his behavior. "That guy is acting like a spoilt child," I remarked to one of my friends.
"Oh...he's drunk. But basically, he is a nice person," he replied.
But basically he's a nice person?! I hear this all the time. What in the heck does that mean, anyway? I'm more interested in what comes before the but! In my book, the story before the "but" decides whether the person is nice or not. A lot of times, people will say these words to give somebody a second chance, or to protect them. I think if a person is nice, he's always going to be nice, no matter what. So the statement -- "he's acting like a jerk now, but basically, he's a nice person" -- somehow doesn't ring true for me. He or she might be nice & kind on occasion, but being "basically nice"? ..... I don't know about that.
And for all you prominent personalities out there -- it's nice to be important, but it's more important to be nice. It's always good to be ambitious, to have goals, to want to be good at what you do, but it's a terrible mistake to let drive and ambition get in the way of treating people with kindness & decency. Never look down on anybody unless you are helping that person up. Being kind and generous gives us the most satisfaction in life. Real generosity is doing something nice for someone who will never find out. And generosity is not about the sum given, it is about the manner in which it is given.
So if you want to be nice, be like that all the time, to everyone. Part-time "niceness" doesn't make one basically nice.
Never miss an opportunity to make others happy, even if you have to leave them alone in order to do it!
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