That’s a phrase that I’ve heard over and over again throughout my life. “No good deed goes unpunished.” I don’t think I’ve ever really thought about it but it seems as I get older, I notice things that I never used to pay attention to. It’s a phrase that you would think wouldn’t make much sense. If you are doing a good deed, then why would you get punished for it? I guess it goes right up there with “bad things happen to good people.” I always had an answer for that one though: because the good people could handle the bad things and were able to learn and grow from it and maybe even teach others what they had learned.

The whole “no good deed goes unpunished” baffles me though. The reason I’ve been pondering it is because over the past couple of weeks, I’ve spewed out that phrase twice now. The first one was dealing with myself. I was supposed to be off from work from Christmas all the way through New Years. I always take that week off and spend the majority of that time with my parents up in West Virginia. This year, we were short staffed in my office and all of us were going to be out at the same time. No one would be in the office. The big boss wasn’t too thrilled about that and was not going to allow it. So, I took one for the team and changed my days off from December 20th through December 26th. I was still getting my week off, but it wasn’t the week that I preferred.

Fast forward to December 21st and I’m at my parents house puking my guts out. I was sick from that day forward. Then I had to leave on Christmas Eve instead of the day after Christmas because bad weather was coming in and I wouldn’t have been able to get home on Tuesday to be at work on Wednesday. So I was sick and didn’t even get to spend Christmas with my family. Why? Because I did a good deed and I had to be punished for it! That makes so much sense, right?!?!

And then, this morning, a big instance of this phrase smacked me in the face. I woke up to learn that a friend of mine had passed away last night. The reason has not been revealed yet but from what I’m reading on Facebook, it was cardiac arrest. This was a guy who worked so hard to help out kids. He had a charity that he ran during Christmas time to collect toys for kids who were without. He also was involved with helping addicts try to get clean and helped their families in the process. He may have just been a walking angel with all the help he gave out every single day of his life. So, why did he have to die at the young age of 43? Because he did a good deed (many good deeds) and had to be punished for it. That makes so much sense, right?!?!

Wrong! None of it makes sense. Not my situation and not my friend passing away either. There, of course, have been many more examples of this phrase coming to life and it just never makes sense. I rack my mind trying to come up with an explanation but there is nothing there. When someone like my friend passes away, people will say, “Oh well his hard work was needed somewhere else.” That makes no freaking sense to me! Obviously he was needed right here where he was. People say there should be more people like them but how can there be when the good people die too soon? Then we are left with selfish people who don’t care anything about helping anyone. If all the good people keep getting taken away, where does that leave us and our future?

It almost makes a person not want to help other people because who knows what their punishment will be! It could be something as simple as getting sick or something worse…like dying. Who wants to take that chance? My only hope is that when the good one does die, they leave behind at least one person who learned from them and will follow in their footsteps.

So while I keep searching for the answer to why good deeds get punished, I’ll leave you with this thought. Life is short. Do what makes you happy. Help people without worrying about what your punishment will be. Respect everyone, even the people who don’t respect you. Do something to make a difference. Maybe the punishment’s are supposed to teach you a lesson or teach you how to be a stronger person in the long run. I don’t know but I’ll keep trying to find the answer!