The Common Good

If you are at all a teacher, such as a parent for a child, a teacher for a student(s), or an elder for a younger, a goal that I like is "the common good."  Is what I am doing going to work for the common good of all?  Now I teach about mediation.  You might think that is pretty insular and isolated.  No.  It is your spiritual gym exercise so that when you get up and go out, you will be working for the common good instead of selfish, self-centered motives, judgments, whining and self-pity, all with attached resentments and fears.  So you don't simply teach a skill or a subject, but rather explain to the student/learner/neophyte how this might impact the common good.  This keeps us connected with a world beyond our small personal, private and sometimes gated world.  You can go to a very private school, such as "The Seven Sisters" and come out being of service to the larger world, the common good.  It is all how a vision is presented to you.  Now who can name the Seven Sister schools?  Doesn't the Boston Marathon go by one of them?  Quiz time!