“It does no harm just once in a while to acknowledge that
the whole country isn't in flames, that there are people in the country besides
politicians, entertainers, and criminals. There are a lot of people who are
doing wonderful things, quietly, with no motive of greed, or hostility toward
other people, or delusions of superiority.”
Charles Kuralt, American Journalist
For fifteen years straight, I wrote a weekly column for our Archdiocesan newspaper (The Record) called An Encouraging Word. The basic thrust of that column was to be an alternative to many religious columns that tended to focus on condemning our culture for it's seemingly sinking into total collapse. In other words, as they looked for sins to condemn, I looked for goodness to affirm. As John Lubbock famously said, "What we see depends mainly on what we look for."
I have never denied the existence of some very harsh realities in our world. All I am saying is, yes, there are some loud, sick and twisted people doing horrible things, but there are a lot of amazing people quietly doing wonderful things right in the midst of all the mean, selfish and destructive behaviors. Since the unheard and unfocused on tend to do their wonderful deeds quietly, we have to have trained eyes to see all the amazing goodness going on around us!
I used to be a "news glutton." I would watch a few hours of news each day. I finally realized that doing that was like "over eating," which will do damage to my physical health. Lately, I have come to realize that wallowing in "too much news" was doing terrible damage to my mental and spiritual health, especially if it was too much "bad news." Part of my "new year's resolution" is to maintain a healthy diet of good food and a more careful intake of "the news" since it has become so unbalanced in favor of negativity.
Since "the news" has become so unbalanced in favor of negativity, I have again realized that I have to go looking for my own "good news." I need to keep doing what I can to focus on the people who are quietly doing amazing things. I need to go to places where I can see what they are doing, affirm them with messages of support and spot-light them when I can in places like this blog.
I have written about it many times, but let me repeat it in case you have not been following this blog. I volunteer at St. Joseph Home for the Aged, operated by the Little Sisters of the Poor, having weekday Masses for the Sisters and the residents. It would be easy for me to focus on the problems of them finding enough staff these days, how many of the residents are sick or how many died last year or how much it costs to operate an institution that takes in people who no longer have enough money to take care of themselves the rest of their lives.
That kind of focus would be easy, but that's not what I do. I try to focus on the fact that this nursing home is one of the cleanest and best run nursing homes I have ever been in! I try to focus on the fact that these Sisters, many of them on walkers and in motorized carts themselves, have spent their lives caring for the elderly poor - giving them a home, nutritious food, health care, spiritual sustenance and even entertainment. I try to focus on the many who volunteer there, those who give them surplus food and supplies when they "beg" and those who make regular donations or leave them some funds in their Last Wills and Testaments - all of which keeps them going! I try to give them my best when I preside and preach at their Masses. I never go in there without being amply prepared.
This is only one example of the "people who are doing wonderful things quietly" that Mr. Kuralt spoke about in the quote at the top of this page. I know of many others and so do you! I know people who are caring for elderly parents at home, raising severely handicapped children and single parents struggling every day to keep their families together. I know people who are dealing heroically with cancer and other debilitating health issues every day, not to mention the people who are comforting and caring for them as best they can. They are almost invisible. These people do what they do quietly. Some of those suffering are children. They never make the news, but they are here among us so let's forget "politicians, entertainers and criminals" for a moment and remember them! Focus on them. Find them. Give them some of our focused attention. They are the real over-looked heroes among us!
WHAT THOMAS MERTON SAW IN THE STREETS OF LOUISVILLE
in his book
Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander
“In Louisville, at the corner of Fourth and Walnut, in the center of the shopping district, I was suddenly overwhelmed with the realization that I loved all those people, that they were mine and I theirs, that we could not be alien to one another even though we were total strangers. It was like waking from a dream of separateness, of spurious self-isolation in a special world, the world of renunciation and supposed holiness… This sense of liberation from an illusory difference was such a relief and such a joy to me that I almost laughed out loud… I have the immense joy of being man, a member of a race in which God Himself became incarnate. As if the sorrows and stupidities of the human condition could overwhelm me, now I realize what we all are. And if only everybody could realize this! But it cannot be explained. There is no way of telling people that they are all walking around shining like the sun.”
HOW WENDELL BERRY COPES WITH DESPAIR FOR THE WORLD
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