I want to make the case for human goodness. I want to be able to say that humans are lovely and generous and kind without being dismissed as naïve or one of those “positive” people.

If helping feels good, as I’ve written about elsewhere one could reasonably ask why the world so often feels so unhelpful and self-absorbed.

Helping feels good. Anyone who has genuinely eased someone’s day knows the lift that follows. It is one of the most reliable sources of wellbeing we have.

We all know the feeling of being asked to help and having that mini-cringe “oh shoot” reaction. This is often made worse when the request is perfectly reasonable and the cause is a good one.

Think about the last time you ended an interaction feeling lighter than when it began. Really, try to picture at least one example before reading on.

There’s been a growing interest in wellbeing in recent years, which is, of course, a good thing. But a lot of the attention, at least the kind that tends to cross my path