A family member recently moved from a small town in Alabama to an even smaller town in the South Pacific.

Worlds apart, you might think. Whole continents and oceans, and the infinite interplay of historical and cultural time, separate the land of the Cherokee syllabary and the Appalachian banjo from the tiny islands where muddy rivers cut through lush jungle and palm trees stage-whisper in the balmy trade winds.

And yet, as I helped my family member with her move, I was renewed in my conviction that most people in the world are inclined to do good. We are all marred by original sin, it is true. But our human natures are God-made, and our souls pull upward, like kites flown in a beach breeze. From Alabama to Austronesia, and during a long stopover in Japan, I saw people pitch in time and again to help, strangers and acquaintances alike. There was nothing in it for any of them. They gave freely of what they had: time, expertise, and material things. And they did it regardless of what they looked like, where they came from, what religion they practice, or what politics they claim.

In Alabama, a country doctor took time to speak with us about some health concerns. He sat down in the examining room, looked my family member in the eye, listened to her, and provided kind and wise counsel.

In the South Pacific, another doctor did the same thing. It was our first time visiting his office. He spoke to us as though he had known us for years.

In Alabama, people from local Baptist churches rallied to help my family member when a medical condition left her unable to drive. Some fellow transplanted Louisianans sporting their LSU bona fides in the Yellowhammer State took her into the big city from time to time for checkups. A good Christian lady in the neighboring town stopped by often to say hello. Other Baptists brought plates of cookies. After a big tornado went by, a local church sent a team of men with chainsaws and trailers to cut up downed trees and haul them away, saving my family member thousands of dollars.

In the South Pacific, parishioners at the thriving Catholic church across the street from my family member’s new home welcomed her to group rosaries recited in a language she couldn’t understand, and said for the soul of a departed woman whom she had never met. What brings us together as people is much greater than the small things that temporarily keep us apart. The parishioners drove her to go shopping and run errands. They came again and again to help set up appliances, keep ants at bay, and keep her company in her just-moved-in confusion. A retired constable, who now spends his days caring and cooking for his extended family, welcomed my family member as one of his own. Thanks to him and to the church community, there’s more barbecue and side dishes in her fridge than she could ever eat.

In the Deep South and the tropical Pacific, people have been quick with kindness, eager to understand, willing to listen, strong and gentle.

In Japan, too, there has been much joy and welcoming, much warmth of heart, much readiness to suffer alongside the stranger, to pitch in and overcome.

There are problems in all three places, of course. There are problems everywhere.

But as a Catholic I want to see the human dignity in everyone. How wonderful to realize that, virtually anywhere you go in the world, most people are already doing just that.

It’s a beautiful testament to the natural law, if you think about it. It’s a splendid affirmation that original sin does not have the final word. The human nature our Creator gave us is tougher and brighter than the darkness we often, in our weakness, choose for ourselves.

A good man, a good woman, are easy to find. Just go out and start talking to people. However bleak the world looks through the lens of the evening news, I bet you’ll find that good people abound everywhere.

I know that for a fact in Alabama, the South Pacific, and Japan. I’ve never seen it contradicted in any of the several dozen other places where I’ve spent time. Free will can wreak havoc, but nobody ever destroys the dignity God gave him. All in all, good people are easy to find. God made us, so it’s not ever going to be otherwise.