Do People Change?

In the middle of this "land of opportunity" where people consume (after all the "consumer" is king, right?) as a way of life, i think we would all agree that there are some things in a person that we would describe as good.  Things like generosity, kindness, self-sacrifice, love, courage, humility, character, hard work, loyalty, integrity...i think i would be hard pressed to find people in our culture, no matter their walk of life, faith-system, orientation, financial class, race, sex, location, etc that did not agree that these types of personality traits are inherently good in a person and the opposite of them (stinginess, selfishness, meanness, conceit, arrogance, deception, laziness, fickleness, betraying) is not good. 

Here's the problem.  For most of my life i totally realized that these were the good things in people.  I realized that i wanted to be those things.  In fact, i even tried...really hard...to get more of these things.  I read about them and thought about them and regretted the times i was not them.  But i could not seem to make any progress.  No matter how hard i tried, i could not make any progress.  I kept being selfish and stingy and even mean.  I hate to admit it but i was a failure at becoming a good person.  And i want you to know my attempts were not half-hearted.  i spent so much time in pain for the person i was not and yet i could not seem to get out of it...

In light of this...

A question for you tonight:

     Can people change?  As you look into your life and those around you, good and bad, do you see them becoming more...good?

 I know not everyone is trying, some of the people in our society still feel like making more money and buying more stuff and serving their own selves is going to be the way for them to live their lives out - party party party - indulge everything and life will be great.  But, when we look at these people, they are icky - they do not live the goodness we all agree on.  And, trust me on this one, there will be a day when they will feel their ickiness - when all their selfishness crashes in on them...

  I'm actually talking more about the people who are actually trying - the ones who realize that they want to be more of the things above, but that they are not making it.  Does this sound familiar to anyone?  Maybe i am by myself in this attempt to try to become...

  Do those people who are trying to become more good...do they become more good?  Do they get somewhere with it, or do they follow the path that i followed - are their stacks of self-help books as high as their stacks of regrets?  do they circle back on the same dumb mistakes over and over?