I don’t think one person in a hundred EVER consciously chooses goodness or evil. I think they do what they were programmed to do. If they were raised in happy families, then being nice is a simple thing. Sharing happiness is a simple thing. But it is not a choice, per se.
True engagement with life is a true engagement with morality, with struggling to do the right thing, after first struggling to determine what that thing IS, relatively speaking, which is to say what is mostly right. It is a mission to see the world every day the way it is, and consciously be brave, consciously be caring, consciously cultivating the emotional and behavioral flexibility to react appropriately, no matter what comes down the pike.
And I think the people who do this best don’t know they are doing it.
I will grant that I like the Odd Thomas character. I’ve read all but 1 of the books, less the latest. It’s perhaps a bit simplistic, but I tend to like Dean Koontz’s moralizing.
That’s all on that for now.