Brain Barf #3: Good News

Sometimes I like to watch the news.  In a realm of toddler things and kindergarten life, it somehow has provided me with a connection to the world outside.  Despite the tragedies that occur on a daily basis in our country and around the world, there is something about the news that pulls me in.  Most of the stories are either mind-numbingly boring or positively frightful, but at least they are someone else's, and there is intrigue in that.

On the other hand, as I mentioned, many of the stories reported on the news are downright tragic: shootings here, destruction there, devastation in that hemisphere, loss in this one...  I have -at times- had to turn the news off because either the story is not appropriate for the ears of my young coloring partners or because the story is just too damn sad for me to cope with at that given moment.  It is times like these when I fear for the future, when I wonder why, among all of His beautiful creation, did God choose mankind to be His masterpiece when He could have chosen any other (perhaps more altruistic) creature.  

But then I remember something.  I remember that the news is only a fraction of our story.  Most people aren't out there shooting up synagogues or kidnapping small children or being generally rapey.  Most people are just living their lives and, when put to the test, will try to do the right thing.  We may not speak the same native language, but most of us aren't trying to swindle old people out of their retirement or follow unsuspecting people to their cars.  Sure, some people are, but there are weirdos everywhere.  The thing is, most of us are just minding our own business and most of us find the news depressing.

Every once in awhile, a "feel good" story will get the spotlight for a minute or two.  Most recently, I heard the story of a man who, after growing up in an underprivileged black community, worked as an auto mechanic for decades.  He.worked.hard.  Day and night, he put in his time.  Then, well into middle age, he decided to go to school to get a business degree and improve his own shop.  While in school, he was required to take a biology class.  At first he was intimidated by this but, once he dove in, he fell in love with the subject.  Fast-forward nearly a decade and the man is now a practicing physician.  And he's a good one too.

I saw another story that made me wonder if someone was cutting onions in the room.  It featured a woman who was recently widowed and, along with some family and friends, was holding a memorial service for her late husband by a lake where he'd loved to fish.  They had met and were married in the 1980s.  She stated that he was the love of her life, but that she was trying to remain positive in spite of her grief.  There was nothing unusual about this story except that this marriage defied the norm: both husband and wife have (had) Down syndrome.  They were among the first couples (if not the first) in the world with this condition to get married.  It was an incredible story.

Finally, there was a story of the widower of a victim of the recent El Paso shooting whose post about his wife's memorial went viral.  The man had lost his wife to a horrifying act of violence and, perhaps saddest of all, he had no other family.  He posted something about how anyone would be welcome at her funeral...and people responded.  Hundreds, thousands of strangers appeared, lining the streets and waiting for hours in the Texas heat wave to pay their respects.  People from all over the world sent flowers, cards, and sympathy to this man.  One stranger who was interviewed said she told him that El Paso was his home and he did have family there.  

I think we can agree that most of the news is depressing.  But do you know what I find even more depressing?  The fact that we don't broadcast the beauty that is all around us.  Yes, bad things happen.  They are terrible and inexcusable and must be shared.  But, in an age of 24 hour news coverage, don't you think we ought to dedicate a little more time to the things we have in common?  Publicize real life demonstrations of what it looks like to love one another?  We live in such a divided world.  Maybe we could appeal across our (racial/political/religious/economic/social) divides to each other's humanity.  We all share a capacity to love.  We all have the ability to demonstrate kindness.  What would happen if we focused on these things -starting in the media- instead of violent protests and mass shootings?  I'm not trying to diminish the negative, we should continue to report it!  But what if we gave the good news (Gospel, if you will? You're welcome, grecophiles.) the spotlight instead?

I'll start.  Here are some acts of beauty that I observed or heard about this week:

One of Habibi's coworkers is the neighbor of a single mom.  This woman recently lost most of the garden in her yard due to water damage so she asked her neighbor (Habibi's coworker) if he knew where she could get dirt.  Instead of shrugging it off because it really wasn't his problem, this guy called up a buddy who is savvy in this kind of thing and they went over and fixed her garden in their free time.  Why?  Because she is a single mom with enough on her plate and it was the right thing to do.

This weekend, I took my kids to a play date at a local park.  Unfortunately, our friends had to leave unexpectedly because one of the kiddos in their family wasn't feeling well.  Jammy was disappointed but, after making some new friends at the park, we were invited to join their church picnic.  They were holding a sort of Vacation Bible School in the park for their congregation's little ones and all of the kids got to take home heaping loads of swag.  Why?  Because they were generous, welcoming, and hospitable, and wanted to love on these kids.

Today, our neighbor kid came over and banged on our back window.  He'd brought us some tomatoes from his family's garden.  Why?  Because his family wanted to bless ours with some of their goodies.

This afternoon, Habibi and I took the kids out to ride around on their wheels.  Jammy rides her bike, Ribbers is on her old scooter.  At one point, Jammy got nervous going down a hill and forgot how to brake.  She made some sort of yelping comment and, despite not being entirely in control of his own set of wheels, Ribbers immediately tootled along on his scooter and yelled, "I GOT YOU!"  He was coming to her rescue in the only way he knew how.  Why?  Because she is his sissy and he loves her.

By most standards, not a single one of these stories is newsworthy.  But I would counter with a

POP QUIZ!!!!!

Are most of the people you know 

A. resilient, kind, thoughtful, generous, and caring?  

B. murdery, violent, gang-banging, racist, and hateful?  

My guess is that most of us would choose A.  If you answered B, then you should probably get new friends.

No one is perfect.  We all make mistakes and nobody would be "A" all the time.  Nevertheless, I think that reporting on more "A" stories would lift us up a little bit,, by showing that the majority of people really aren't purely wicked monstrosities.  They might even make us a little less suspicious of one another...even borderline conspiracy theorists like me.  Then again, maybe it wouldn't change a thing.  I don't know.  What I do know is that Good News is all around us, we just have to open our eyes to see it.