Today, the draw is bathed in sunlight, and the needles of the big pines are glimmering with traces of gold. I’m seeing more deer, and more birds. Perhaps the moose will stop by one day soon. When I was very young, there wasn’t a moose this side of the Canadian border–now, there is a herd of some forty of them, ranging over a wide grazing area, literally in my back yard. And the bald eagle is back, too–there are two that visit the big pine tree in front of my lake house. Once, they were nearly extinct. Now, they are returning. It is a thrill to the heart to watch them rise on a current of wind, spreading their magnificent wings.
I guess I’m ranting about all this because we get so much bad news about the state of the planet. And it’s certainly true that we’d all better get ‘green’, and soon. But once in a while, somebody needs to speak up. There ARE good things happening in this world–they just don’t make the news. There are people out there doing kind things, responsible things. They are rescuing animals. They are feeding hungry children. They are tending to the sick and working night and day to find cures for all sorts of diseases. You meet them every day, these quiet, ordinary heroes and heroines. You probably ARE one of them.
As someone who spends a great deal–some would say inordinate–of time mucking about in the nineteenth century, I can tell you with certainty–we’ve come a long way, baby. In terms of justice, of civil rights, of opportunity and all around awareness. And even though we’ve still got a very long way to go, I believe with all my heart that we’ll get there. Our children and our children’s children will carry on.
There have always been bad people. But they’re vastly outnumbered. 🙂
And for every bad thing they do, we can do ten good ones.
Let’s push up our sleeves and get to it.
