I'm not going to dwell on this story. I am not going to exploit his tragedy on my blog.
What I will say is this:
In recent times, the news has been more and more horrific. The Middle East. Iraq. Syria. Children in detention. Ebola. The suicide of a beloved comedian. The list goes on and on.
And life on a personal level is challenging. Of course it is. For you, no doubt, as it is for me.
I need an antidote. I need to restore some kind of faith in humanity. I need to remind myself that there is wonder and beauty and goodness in the world. I need to tip the balance.
And I need your help.
I am hoping you can share with me - and with each other - some positive stories. Just a line or two. Events or people who reminded you that there is hope for us all, that there is light and love and happiness and the potential for peace. You could share them in the comments, or share them on Twitter or FB or Insta or on your own noticeboard at home with the hashtag #FaithInHumanity.
Maybe we can remind each other the world isn't such a bad place.
I will start:
Several cafes on the main road in my suburb feed a homeless man. People regularly stop and offer him clothing, food and shelter. He is respected and cared for by the community. #FaithInHumanity
I don't really have a story... all I know is that when I read about things like this, I look around at the people I know - in real life and online - and I remember that the majority of people on this small world we share are good people - we vastly outnumber the people who hate and kill - and that makes me feel better about the world.
ReplyDeleteI grieve for the victims of war and hate - but I also grieve for the perpetrators - what awful life experiences must you have to get to the point where you can so casually end someone's life, all for some ideology or belief that most of us don't understand...
We're all born innocent - I feel sorrow for the people who end up being filled with so much hate...
Thanks hon. I like that comment x
ReplyDeleteMy 7 year old son noticed that a little girl at school was being ignored in the playground. So he organised a game that lots of girls & boys could play together, including this little girl. I just try & look at the world through my children's eyes when I need a shining light.
ReplyDeleteI take comfort in the knowledge that these atrocities in the news are at least newsworthy. Newsworthy because they are horrific to the majority. Newsworthy because however common they seem, they are still not everyday/everywhere/everyone events.
ReplyDeleteOut of near constant tragedy in the last two years there's a hope that if I work hard enough that I can have my dream. And it's conceivabe that I wouldn't have been able to do it without those tragedies occuring. It's like magic cos it IS magic.
ReplyDeleteThis pig's story. Hope the link works! :) https://www.facebook.com/349434732754/photos/a.353502157754.185558.349434732754/10152689672632755/?type=1&theater
ReplyDeleteGood idea Kerri….
ReplyDeletePopped into local grocery store this am and witnessed something that restored my faith…. Little old man rummaging through unripe bananas searching for a ripe one…. couldn't find it…. Young guy in front of me watched him doing this said "Excuse me did you want a ripe one?" and Old man said "Yes but I can't seem to find one" and young dude handed over his one (it was the only thing he was holding.) It's these small acts of kindness that restore my faith daily.
A month ago, a man told me this story. He was homeless and hitchhiking to a job interview. Two young men, in their twenties, picked him up heard his story and took him shopping for new clothes and out for a meal, and practiced interview questions with him before dropping him at his interview. He got the job. And wanted everyone to know that if our youth can do that, we have to have hope for the future.
ReplyDeleteRan into him again and he still has a job, and a car, and is still smiling.
Perth commuters pushing the train to help the trapped man. Taylor Swift visiting a young child with cancer and playing songs to him. The stranger who jumped into the freezing Yarra River to rescue a mum and her three year old.
ReplyDeleteIt was only several fridays ago that our own twitter community responded to a fellow tweeps emotional grief. Gripped in an emergency, and facing the immediate prospect of losing her young puppy, our tweep tweeted her predicament. Within an instant, people were preparing to jump into their cars so as to shuttle a blood donor (their own beloved pet) across town, to help someone they had never met.
ReplyDeleteMy friend (who is gay) and her partner were not invited to an extended family birthday celebration because of their sexuality, in case it 'caused trouble'. It was OK because my friend and her partner (who are SO MUCH MORE than their sexuality by the way) didn't feel close to those people and wouldn't want to be with haters anyway, but when my friend posted about her confusion as to why people think that way, her mum wrote the most beautiful comment and all the rest of her friends (me included) rallied and stood behind her, JUST IN CASE she was more rattled than she let on. My heart swelled watching this exchange and it did restore my faith (as it surely did my friend's).
ReplyDeleteThis woman's story:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2014/aug/16/a-letter-to-strangers-on-train
I talk to a customer whose Mum is in Israel, she goes over 4 times a year, and she always says it is not as portrayed in the new here, it is sensationised out of proportion for countries who want the resoursces. I believe her.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful. Yes. Thank you x
ReplyDeleteYour son sounds like a special kid. xxx
ReplyDeleteWow. That's pretty amazing.
ReplyDeleteI missed that! That is divine. I need to follow your people... (so to speak) x
ReplyDeleteYES! I love that. Yes. x
ReplyDeleteYes, of course. Absolutely true.
ReplyDeletethanks Lynda. x
ReplyDeleteI am crying. Utterly beautiful. THANK YOU x
ReplyDeleteI am stunned that someone would exclude your friend because of her sexuality. STUNNED. But heartened by the response. I hope some of the birthday party people saw the exchange and learned something. Thanks Kez (I am also called Kez, btw) x
ReplyDeleteYES THERE ARE x
ReplyDeleteOh Rachel. I'm crying again! Happy piggies! GOOSEBUMPS!!!! xxx
ReplyDeleteYOU CAN DO IT SHANNON. I believe in you!
ReplyDeleteFor me it is the accumulation of small things. It's all the people who smile and say hello, good morning/afternoon when my partner and I are out for our regular walks. It's seeing the smile on my granddaughter's face when I made her an fresh cheese on toast after she had given half of hers to her sister and mother (she hadn't asked for more she had just shared because she always does. It's the IT tutor at the community college who regularly stays back to help the seniors with their questions. Its the staff at the nursing home who care for my mother in law who go the extra mile for the residents in their journey through dementia. I could go on and on but that is what keeps my faith in humanity
ReplyDeleteThat's amazing. I felt good about stopping to ask a mum at Costco with one of their enormous trolleys, a toddler running around near the car park, and another asleep on her shoulder, if she needed a hand, but that story is awesome. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteI work in a non-clinical role in a hospital in Canberra. I usually get there around 9 but arrived uncharacteristically early yesterday. I saw our gardener out in the staff car park with a bucket of water and a scraper scraping the ice off the windscreens of the night duty staff so that when they finish at 7am their windscreen isn't too frosted to drive off. No-one asked him to do it. No-one would have known it was him. It isn't part of his job. He just did it out of the kindness of his own heart.
ReplyDelete#Faithinhumanity
I found some torn pages of scribble in my letterbox last week.
ReplyDeleteMy daughter babysits a 3 yo girl locally and she posted her those pages as a 'letter'.
My daughter then posted an actual photo (i.e. got it printed!!!) of her dressed up for her 21st birthday this week and told her this is what she has to look forward to.
It made my heart burst.
That is heaven. HEAVEN. x
ReplyDeleteThat is gorgeous x
ReplyDeleteYou're right, Narelle. It's the little things. Thank you x
ReplyDeleteThis is such a lovely thread. Wanted to add a few albeit small things... But they all count. After a doctors visit my son was given 2 jelly beans. He gave 1 to the little girl in the waiting room he had befriended while waiting. Whilst my son and I have been really ill a friend has sent a 'sending love' text every single day. I recently got a surprise package full of little gifts from a friend. I have a friend on Facebook who is a foster mum and what she does for those kids is unbelievable. Currently a friend is totting up her dry July donations which she did in honour of her late friend to raise funds for thyroid cancer. The other day in Aldi a nice man insisted I go ahead of him in the queue. As I say small things but there are good people out there. Thanks Kerri. xx
ReplyDeleteNarelle's my big sister Kerri! :)
ReplyDeleteSeeing her post a comment on your site made me happy too!
This afternoon, I was walking along the street in New York City where I have lived for many years and I fell forward scrapping both my palms and my right knee on the pavement. As I was sitting on the sidewalk, who were the people who offered to help me- a middle aged woman like myself and a (possibly) homeless man collecting cans from the garbage bins on the street. You never know where help can come from.
ReplyDeleteMichelle