The next time Santa asks you if you have a been a good little boy or girl.........

   The young boy sat on Santa's lap, maybe at a mall somewhere. It was a television commercial for an automobile company. Santa, dressed in his traditional bright red suit, was asking the boy what he wanted for Christmas. No toys! "A real car," was the response. Santa seemed surprised by the request. (Remember, this was a TV commercial!)"That's a pretty big gift", he said. "Were you a 'good' boy this year?" Looking Santa squarely in the eyes and with all seriousness in his tone of voice, the 'precocious'  lad said to Santa...”define good!” 
   Santa stammered and stuttered to find an answer as  the boy jumped off his lap. Although this was a "staged" television  commercial, it does raise an interesting question.'What is the meaning of the word 'good' and why does it only seem to mean so much more this time of the year. Perhaps because some believe it will get you more presents? That's not good!

   A quick look at Webster's Dictionary reveals the word 'good' has many different meanings, depending upon the context in which the word is used. For example, often it is linked to a person's character as in..”a good and honorable person' or in a much different example... a four wheel drive vehicle is 'good' for driving in snow. But in the case of the boy sitting on his lap, Santa was  probing to see if he had been well behaved the past year.    Historically, bad behavior often meant lumps of coal from Santa on Christmas Eve, or at least that's how the story goes and nobody wants lumps of coal. But looking around, there may be many who should be receiving lots of coal this year. But... I won't mention any names.

   In an unofficial and unscientific survey conducted by me, I asked people what the word 'good' really means. Some of the responses I am not able to print because of the 'content' and 'context'. Gutter minds, you know! But in most cases, the responses were ones I had expected.

   From the younger generation (under the age of 8) ... nice, pleasant, respectful, being polite to your mom and dad, cleaning up your toys, and going to bed on time... were at the top of the list. Doing homework, brushing your teeth each day, keeping a promise and feeding the dog also made the 'being good' list

   For the adults, defining the word was a bit more challenging. Perhaps with the passing of time and the loss of childhood innocence, the word has lost some of its original intent and meaning. (Note..Buried deeply within the definition in Webster's dictionary is the reference that the word 'good' originally was derived from the word God.)

   Several spoke of 'good food' or a 'good movie', good times or a good game. When asked to use a scale of 1 to 10 to rate  'good', the most common response was  '7'. But goodness gracious! Am I beginning to see a pattern here. Does being 'good' only mean being just... OK?

   What was interesting was that the kids were seeing 'good' as a “people" quality or characteristic while the adults saw it was more as a judgment or value of something, not a personal quality. So when does a shift take place in a child's mind and why?

  We try to teach our children to be 'good', to be nice to their friend, to share toys and be polite to others, the more traditional understanding of the word 'good'. But as they grow older they see, in real life and on television, something very different and by the time they are adults, being 'good' has lost its importance because generally we don't judge people with the traditional meaning of 'good' any more. Is a person good and honorable or are they no different than being a 4-wheel vehicle being driven in snow?

   I am not sure, as I look back this year, if asked the age old question about 'being good or bad' this past year, what my answer would be. I hope I could, in good conscious, say 'good'. But others will be the judge of that. Isn't that right Santa?

   And that young boy who looked Santa in the eye in the commercial? My bet is he grows up to be a lawyer!  :)