Peter Maurin, the co-founder of The Catholic Worker, said that his goal was to help build a society "where it was easier to be good."
I thought about this recently over dinner with two professors from my alma mater. I not only learned about Maurin during my college days, but it was a place that attracted some special people who made it "easier to be good."
Of course, there are also situations in which it is harder to be good. The people with whom we spend our time have an enormous impact on us. Virtue is contagious. So is vice.
Knowing this, it's best to avoid the living dead:
I saw this post (and video) for the first time today. While I am a non-believer/non-religious person, I enjoyed the wisdom in this video. I don't think it's new-think but certainly worth some reminder-think. It could, I submit, be more useful as a reminder to all of us - it's not who you hang out with (doesn't most religion praise it's figureheads for hanging out with the poor, the downtrodden and those who are shunned on the fringes of our society - not so much lepers anymore, but what about victimized and hated/abused types) -- because, and Christian types should correct me if I'm wrong on this, but didn't their most revered-ones achieve great things, not by hanging out with their fellow heroes, but by Mother Teresa tending to the poor, Jesus hanging out with criminals, the unwashed the untouchables of his country, or the current Pope Francis ministering to the poor? Hang out with those less-fortunate and help lifting them, to me, seems more worthy than hanging out with like minded clerics ....