I Hate Watching The News

For the longest time I would watch the TV news to learn about what was going on in the world.  The one thing I have learned is that when you watch the news you get to hear about the same story twenty different times.  I love how news stations talk about current events like—president Obama’s dog or how the first lady wore shorts.  Quite frankly I don’t give a hoot about what kind of dog the first family has or what the first lady’s fashion choices are.  I sure as hell don’t care if Sonya Sotomayer said something about being a Hispanic female judge 10 or 15 years ago.

My favorite was turning on the news to learn that Paris Hilton and Nicole Ritchie were drunk again…whoopee!!!  Thanks CNN I couldn’t have lived without knowing that.  What I began to think is that Americans were uninteresting, but that surely is not true.  I have seen the good in people all around the country and all around the world.  Why is it that we don’t care how someone helped another but are very interested in how much a celebrity divorce is going to cost them?

Good Deeds

A few years back, while playing catch with a friend in a field alongside a highway, I had an opportunity to be a good samaritan.   A car pulled over with a front tire flat, it was a Buick LeSabre and fairly new.  At first I figured it was a young guy and would do nothing of it, then the man that was driving crawled out of the drivers door.  He was about 65 to 75 and perfectly capable of changing the tire, however it would probably have taken an hour and all his energy.  Judging by his attire and that of his wife they were heading somewhere nice or coming back from somewhere nice.  By the time the old man had the trunk open, my friend and I were there. 

“Can I give you a hand sir?” I asked

“Huh, oh no thank you son, just got a flat.”

While the old timer was talking to me my friend had grabbed the jack and lug wrench and he handed them to me.  The old man saw my friend and turned to assure him that he could handle it.  As my friend was retrieving the spare from the trunk I had the hubcap off and lug nuts loose and was jacking up the front of the car.  During constant assurance that he could do it, and continuous reassurance that we knew, the tire was getting changed.  All in all the process probably took ten minutes.  As we put all his tire changing equipment and flat tire in the trunk he was asking us what he owed us.

“Nothing, just pay it forward.” We responded

Good Deeds Unheard

Everywhere you go and everywhere you look someone at some time is doing something nice for a stranger.  People may wonder why while some wouldn’t care.  I tell you that is what life is all about.  Make a difference in the world by helping someone.  Have you ever seen anyone struggle with groceries or something heavy?  Have you ever turned your back on them while choosing to ignore their tribulations? 

I think that while the world chooses to hear about celebrity crisis and crime, we should choose to hear about what someone did to help out a complete stranger.  If no one is around I always choose to stop at a crash.  I challenge everyone to help out a stranger for just one day.  The cost is small compared to the value it has.