Friday, November 15, 2013

BatKid



I'm sure you saw this story on the news, youtube, twitter, instagram - they were all lit up about it.
A beautiful, heartwarming story about how a whole city - San Francisco - got behind the Make A Wish dream of a 5 year old little boy, in remission from acute lymphoblastic leukemia, to be Batman.

He became the trusty sidekick of Batman - Batkid.  He drove the streets of San Francisco in a sleek black Lamborghini.  He did stunts and rescued a damsel in distress before finally getting the Joker locked up for his dastardly deeds.  A whole city came out to cheer him on, to facilitate his special day.



It seemed everyone was talking about it, happy crying about it, cheering about it.  It was a delicious slice of humanity that thousands got to participate in.  I read lots of tweets, FB posts and blogs about what a nice change it was from, sad and scary news stories.  How unusual it was to see such kindness.  How great it was to see that the humans of this world still have heart.

Here's the thing.  I think beautiful, heartwarming things like this happen everyday.  I think that kindness and humanity are much more prevalent than crime.  I think we could become addicted to the good feelings experienced today in the same way we have become addicted to the vicious gossip propagated by the tabloid media or the detailed and relentless news of isolated violence.  I think the happy news is out there and if we demand more balance from our media outlets - they'll give it to us.

We do need to know the sad, dark stories of the world but let's redress the balance. Sites like Upworthy are gaining momentum but we need a monumental shift.  Noticing how much we liked how it felt today to watch that adorable little kid, in his suit, blazing around the city is a start.  Noticing how we feel when we watch the opposite might encourage us to trend towards the happier feeling .  Finding balanced news which presents facts and shows a minimum of graphic images would help.  I think if we could see more of the good - we'd do more good.  We'd be less pessimistic or suspicious about the validity of our efforts, which can feel like a drop in the ocean when faced with the tidal wave of negativity.  I think that kindness is just as infectious as fear.

If this one boy's wish turned a tide - that would really be something.


1 comment:

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