We have no shortage of bad news right now, made all the worse with Christmas just around the corner.
If you’re not up-to-date on all the problems and tragedies currently plaguing America and the world, just browse to any major news site or turn on the 24 hour cable news.
But better yet, don’t.
Like a lot of parents I’ve been trying to come to grips with the bad parts of the world we live in, trying to see my way clear to how I will ever explain it all to my boys, or how I will ever come to feel sure that bringing them into this world did them any favors.
There are no simple answers for the issues currently trumpeting across headlines, not when the problems are so difficult to come to grips with, not when the stakes are so high.
So instead, however fleetingly, let’s put the questions aside and take a look at some Simple Good.
Simple Good is the best kind of good; it’s the type of good every little child understands and expresses freely and intuitively.
It’s the shared snack, the guileless hug, the easy forgiveness.
Despite the abuse, neglect and general apathy and indifference you might have observed in your fellow man and even in yourself; rest assured.
Simple Good is still there in all of us no matter how bad it might seem.
Consider the incredibly simple, incredibly good story of Russell Fisher, the owner of a grocery store in Beaverton, Canada.
A couple weeks back, on Friday November 13th, Mr. Fisher just started giving groceries away.
The two dozen baffled and elated customers queued up in the checkout line only to be told that they owed no money for their groceries.
Some customers burst into tears and gave Mr. Fisher “spontaneous hugs.”
“It’s about community and giving back to our customers,” Mr. Fisher said.
“This is probably the highlight of my career.”
The highlight of his career? Sure, I can believe that. Can you?
Don’t we all, deep down inside, yearn to express that Simple Good? To give something to our neighbor, our loved one, our family member, to give it freely and without reservation?
When we spend so much of our time running shoulder-to-shoulder though this maze of mind-numbing labor, devouring fleeting distractions and neglecting dwindling connections with those who we love the most? When we never know how long or short our time here will be, is there anything we can honestly say is more valuable?
So: here’s your call to action.
Do something Simple and Good this week.
Don’t complicate it, don’t strategize it, don’t rationalize it or maximize it or make it an act of perfection.
Don’t tweet it, scope it, blog it or facebook it. Don’t tell another living person, ever.
Just look for an opportunity and seize it, lead with your heart. It only feels like a risk to you because you have grown distant from it, you have momentarily forgotten and you are forgiven.
We all forget things from time to time.
It can be a genuine smile to a stranger, it can be a note of gratitude to an unsuspecting neighbor, it can be an unsolicited, anonymous donation that gives somebody the opportunity to have a Christmas who wouldn’t have had it otherwise.
It can be a kiss, a shared sandwich, a voice message left that simply says “I love you and I forgive you.”
It can be yours, the highlight of your career, or week, or month, or lifetime. It’s within you right now, stirring in your chest.
The Simple Good, ready to come out.