I'm not as easily discouraged by the discovery of new faults as I am by the seemingly endless battle I face eradicating these faults from every discoverers' memory. It's almost as if the first impression lasts only almost as long as the worst impression. Every good deed dedicated to the demise of even the slightest of flaws is noticeable only by its stark contrast to the more familiar me. I don't know if it's because we find our own bad habits hard to break, but it seems like we have a tendency to disavow even the most obvious positive changes in those around us. And just so we're clear on this, human nature is an affliction in which I suffer with you.

In the Gospel of Luke, 10:25-37, Jesus relates the Parable of the Good Samaritan. Even if you are not familiar with the parable itself, you have probably heard someone referred to as a "good Samaritan". While it would be easy to grasp the contextual meaning of this phrase in our modern use, you might fail to discern the irony in referring to someone as a "good Samaritan" given the social standing of Samaritans in Jesus' time. To borrow from the immortal Forrest Gump, Samaritans and Jews would not have gone together like peas & carrots - more like oil and water. And yet, when a Jew is robbed and left for dead, both a priest and a Levite pass by the man - each for their own reasons - before a Samaritan stops to help the Jew.

Jesus tells the Parable of the Good Samaritan, with great effect, to explain that a neighbor is anyone who needs you. In the process, sometime between then and now, our idea of what or who a Samaritan is changed drastically. I don't know if the effect was immediate or if the transition spanned countless civilizations, translations, and interpretations, but it's obvious. When we refer to someone as a Samaritan we regard them very differently than the way the Jew, the priest and the Levite would have in Jesus' day. One simple act, a story told in a few words among thousands, changed the perspectives of generations. This is my hope - that we will dwell on the good in each other, even when the bad is what is most familiar.