Only Positive News

For 85 hours George Hood focused on nothing but pedaling his bike.  He was allowed a 5 minute break for each hour of pedaling completed.  However, other than that, he was on a mission to pedal, and pedal, and pedal some more.  What he was racing toward wasn’t really any particular location; after all, he was pedalling on a stationary bike.  What he was after, however, was a title in the Guiness Book of World Records and a successful fundraising drive for the Illinois chapter of COPS, an organization specifically designed to help the families of slain police officers.  He did both.  The title, upon proper certification by Guiness officials, will be his AND the event raised $25,000 for COPS.  Hood had about 200 people on-site to cheer him on for a job well done.  Congratulations for doing something that not only provides you a sense of satisfaction and acknowledgment, but also helps a group of deserving people.  Nice Job!

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It is easy, at times, to be wrapped up in our own little worlds.  It is easy, to remain uninterested in those that we don’t personally know or have any real connection to.  It is easy, just to keep going in the same tracks that you have walked in past years. 

It is easy, no doubt about that.  But, is it satisfying?  This year, as 2007 gets underway, I would challenge anyone and everyone to find one thing that is outside their normal scope and pursue making a difference.  There are so many worthy causes we can become a part of.  Whether you have a few hours a week that you can read to an elderly resident in a nursing home or someone confined to their own home; or perhaps, you have a few dollars left at the end of your week that you can donate to a charitable organization — it doesn’t matter.  What does matter is that you do something. 

Our world is a great place to be.  We have the power to make it even greater.  One person at a time, working together to make a difference.  Now that’s a New Year’s Resolution, we can be proud of.

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This has been my mantra for the 22 years I have been working to get my college diploma.  It is never too late.  This past week, my family agreed as they watched me graduate.  It was a great feeling to have finally accomplished such a big goal. 

I read this week of a 100 year old man, Marvin L. “Hub” Northen, that also received his diploma from Baylor University.  The man had left the university during the Great Depression  because he needed to work to help care for his family.  When he left, he was one chemistry credit shy of graduation and somehow never made it back to finish the degree.  The school decided that the diploma was in order. 

The Associated Press reported that, “According to Glenn Hilburn, the retired chair of Baylor’s religion department, Northen has been participating in a class that can be substituted for the Chemistry 101 class he never took.

‘He’s passed this substitute class with a grade of A-plus without even knowing it,’ Hilburn said. ‘It’s Life 101. He’s mastered that course and mastered it well.’”

Congratulations Mr. Northen on a job well done!  Without even realizing it, you have also proven that it is never too late.

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When Austin was age 9, all he wanted to do was make his schools’ basketball team.  He didn’t make it.  So, he decided to learn more about where his penpal lived instead.  What he found was startling. Austin learned that as a result of the AIDs epidemic in Africa about 15 million children had been orphaned.  Not knowing exactly what he could do, Austin put together what he called a hoop-a-thon (like a walk-a-thon but it involves shooting free thows instead) on World AIDs day.  That day, Austin shot 2,057 free throws to represent the 2,057 kids who would be orphaned during the period of time that Austin would be in school.  He took pledges from the community and when it was all said and done, Austin’s first attempt at fund raising raised $3,000 which he then donated to World Vision to help take care of orphaned children.  

That was three years ago.  Each year this program has continued to grow as other children (and adults) have taken their shot at the freethrow lines.  The project has become a national movement and this year Austin hoped to do something much bigger — in that he wanted to help build a school so that the children would have a chance to improve their lives.  As of last week, Austin and his organization, www.hoopsofhope.org, raised $100,000.  Working again in conjunction with World Vision, Austin was more than happy to announce that a schedule has been approved to build a new school in Zambia this spring.   

It only goes to prove that no one is too young to make a difference.  

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A month or so ago I told you about the “free hug” movement that had made it’s way from Australia to China.  This week the movement has made its way to Seoul, Korea where it was also met with a certain level of resistance.  Seems that the East still hasn’t learned to embrace its neighbors from the West — literally.  However, they are learning to appreciate a good supportive squeeze and slowly the resistance is lessening.  More and more people are exchanging hugs as a way of showing support to one another.  For example, Korean students are now organizing their own hugging events to offer support after exams are completed and Naver, a Korean online portal has reported that literally thousands of people have joined an online hugging community. 

Let’s face it folks we are making progress.  Not all think such progress is here to last however:  

“The free hug phenomenon can be translated as symbolic resistance against a society that is turning bleak and lonely,” Seoul National University sociology Prof. Jung Keun-sik told Stripes. “But I don’t think it will last long.”

I respectfully choose to disagree.  I think the hugging phenomenon is about more than just symbolic resistance to being lonely.  Squeezing another human being requires effort and energy.  No, hugging is about being supportive and showing compassion in a world that needs more than hugs to survive.  However, hugs are an excellent starting point and I’m more than willing to do my part.  Hugs, get your hugs!  If you want a hug, the line forms on the right. 

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It would have taken the man almost three years to earn the amount of cash he found in the suitcase.  No one had seen him find it, and no one would have ever known he had it.  But, he knew.  Jose Breta was performing his duties as a trash collector working in Rio de Janeiro when he found a suitcase stuffed with 12,000 reals (about $5,500 USD) behind a lottery ticket sales office.  The owner had apparently hidden the suitcase in the trash pile to protect the money from thieves.  Breta figured out who the owner was and returned every penny.  His reward?  $450.00 and a clear conscience.  Breta is quoted by the Associated Press as saying, “At first I wanted to keep the money, but when I gave it back, my conscience was freed.  Returning the money was the best thing I ever did.”    

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In 2003, Kaziah Hancock from Manti, Utah recognized that there was a real need to give something back to the families of American soldiers killed in the line of duty.   Hancock decided that the best way she could do something was to take her talents as an oil-painter and turn them into keepsake memorials to provide to the families at no charge.  This original personal endeavor has expanded into an organization known as Project Compassion.  The project features paintings by a select group of professional artists who volunteer their talent, and who are accepted into the project baseed on professional merit and humanitarian philosophy.   The project receives between 6-8 requests per month for paintings, each of which takes approximately 2 months to complete. 

I think it’s extremely touching to see a small cohort of people with so much drive, passion and talent pour it into a project to give a grieving family a little piece of their loved one back, and perhaps maybe even a small moment of peace.  

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Apparently there is a scientific method to being happier. Turns out that if you reflect on your day before you go to bed, and do it a particular way, you have better dreams, sleep better, and generally feel happier.

The key? Reflecting on three positive things that happened during the day and figuring out why they happened. Analyze what went right, the experts say, and you create more of it, both mentally and physically.

Sounds good to me.

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Find a place where you can see your reflection and take part in a little experiment for me.  It won’t take much time or even any effort on your part.  It’s easy really, but it will change your life in ways you cannot even imagine.  What do I need you to do?  Smile, yes, just smile.  Who is that powerful, magnetic person looking back in that reflection?  Is that you?  Isn’t it a great feeling?  Don’t you just feel positive energy pulsating throughout your entire body?  It’s uncanny.  It’s energizing.  It’s real.

The experiment goes a bit further, though.  Now, keep that smile in place and watch how others will react to your broad grin in much the same way.  They have to — it’s the Law of Smiling.  Positive energy spent comes back in positive energy received and so on.  Smiling is a universal non-threatening gesture, that tells people you are confident, you are friendly, you are whatever you are trying to sell about yourself when you flash that smile.  It’s better than money to guarantee your success.  Really!  Try it yourself.  Make it a habit to smile and watch how differently you are treated by those you come in contact with.  You will soon be wondering what took you so long to try it.  So go on, do it — you know you want to — SMILE!

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The holiday shopping season is days away — literally — and the thought of my favorite stores becoming nothing short of war zones make me cringe. Yet, today I saw something that gave me hope. In having breakfast with some friends this morning, we went to a local restaurant that had quite a line waiting for a table. In fact, the entry was extremely crowded and people were standing in the entry (in an attempt to get out of the cold bitter wind blowing outside) packed in as tightly as a subway during morning rush hour. A couple entered, they were elderly — I’m guessing late eighties and joined the crowd standing. I saw a family with school age children sitting on the single bench. A little boy of approximately 8 or 9 was looking at the couple with big blue eyes. Suddenly, he jumped up and pulled his younger sister off the bench as well and offered the couple their seats. It was truly a moment of selfless, uncoached kindness that touched my heart. The family these two children came from had 6 young children, this boy being the oldest. His parents had been wrestling with the younger children on their laps and hadn’t really noticed what was going on until the couple sat next to them, smiling and thanking the generosity of the young man and his sister.

I find myself still smiling as I remember the moment and I find myself increasingly grateful to the child for his actions and to his parents for caring enough to teach compassion. While other patrons seemed to notice the gesture initially, it was quickly dismissed because of their own discomfort with the wait. I, on the other hand, chose to reward the child and his family by paying their ticket at the same time I paid mine — and adding to it an entire pie “to go” with a note of thanks to the young man for displaying such unselfish thoughtfulness. Such big acts of kindness at such a young age should be rewarded — don’t you think?

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