I am at heart an optimist. I was reading books about faith and ethics while I was still a child of ten, looking to find my way toward goodness. I was taught and believed and still believe that goodness matters, that what we call goodness is something to pursue and to praise.

The Golden Rule, kindness, sharing, doing for others—these were values I learned from my parents. Those values were reinforced by my reading, by my experiences, and through pure reason. If we survive as a species, we survive in community. “Rugged individualism” is all very well and good, I suppose, but it’s not how we continue in the world. That old image of fur trappers in the West, Shane riding off into the sunset—those individuals die out. Families and communities live on. Cooperation and collaboration are survival techniques for us as people, as much as aggression and competition—the much emphasized scientific explanation of human survival—are survival techniques for the individual. I’d argue that taking care of one another is far more valuable that merely standing alone. I would argue that our historical idealism is not foolish or outdated but necessary.

We do not thrive or even survive as individuals. Find examples or exceptions, of course, of selfish and entirely self-serving behavior. It does the job too often. It “wins.” Nevertheless, selfishness is not a value causing or even allowing people to thrive. It is not why I am alive today. It is not what built our nation.

Our nation was founded on idealism, and that striving toward what we regard as perfect—despite our failures—that noble optimism has carried us past a lot of ugliness. [No point denying the ugliness unless we are determined to turn away from our accomplishments at the same time.]

To fail to acknowledge the struggles of our past is blind foolishness, just as parents who often insist to their teens that “these are the best years of your life!” have foolishly forgotten how hard their own transition to adulthood was. [Unless high school really was their best time in life? And it’s been all downhill from there? That’s simply not true for most of us and a terrible burden to lay on our children.]

Cynicism is dangerous. It is ruinous and unrealistic. When we see evil everywhere and in everything, we lose our way, become fearful and wasteful. We overlook cruelty and selfishness because we assume everyone is cruel and selfish. That is just not true. We abandon the “better angels of our nature.” [Despite the rantings and actions of little t, and despite our fears—especially despite our cowardice and fearfulness and waste and struggle—we are and can be good people and a great nation in our striving.)

If not in perfection we can pursue a more perfect union. “We hold these truths to be self-evident…” “We the people…” What a glorious and revolutionary notion, that all people in our nation are on a level plain, that no one is innately born or made better than others, no more important, and not above the law [notwithstanding, the recent SCOTUS decision disaster].

People who serve, who strive toward justice, and who behave with decency and honesty DO exist. It is reality. We are capable of altruism—all life is capable of serving the common good and self-sacrifice according to science. Species from one-celled to humanity behave at times for the common good. Indeed, it is the only way survival is guaranteed. We will not only work together, we will sacrifice for others, and we do it every time we give up our seat on the bus, take time to help a lost stranger find their way, speak out against cruelty (and suffer when we do not speak out), and offer the larger portion of apple pie to someone we love. We do this daily in our lives. We do these things not because we are stupid but because caring for one another allows us to thrive collectively as well as individually. Ultimately, this is how we live. We give as well as receive.

We call that generosity of spirit “good” because on some level most of us understand that it serves our survival as individual and as a species. We can be good. We must be “good.” As a people we can serve the common good. It is something we can all strive to be and to do. And imperfect as we are, we succeed. Allow a little faith, because every faith tells us to be good, to trust that goodness matters. Trust.