When Stephanie and I first talked about me writing a weekly column I asked what did she want me to write about. She answered very quickly and clearly. She said I could write about anything except religion, only because she already had a half-dozen weekly religion columns. Sometimes I’m good at following directions. Sometimes not. What I think I’m pretty good at it is bending rules without quite breaking them.
A while back, I received a private message on Facebook that the world is an evil place. I didn’t respond, but the words stuck with me. This week I traveled more than 1200 miles on the highway. That much time on the road gives me a lot of time to think. One of the things I thought about was that comment, “the world is an evil place.”
I thought about a dear friend who passed away much too young. He was a law enforcement officer with a reputation of being more than a little over-the-top in many ways. Once when we were alone, he told me the one thing in his law enforcement career that brought him the most pride.
He told me about the meth addict who got caught up in a much larger drug case. He arrested her along with some really bad characters. I don’t recall the exact details of her crimes or sentence, but he said the day he saw her after her release, and she hugged him and thanked him for getting her started toward a drug-free life was his proudest day as a LEO.
I saw him buy groceries for people who couldn’t afford to feed their kids.
That sounds like a good man to me.
This week, I spent Thursday in board meetings at Shriners Childrens Shreveport. I was surrounded by people who work hard every day trying to help children live better lives. They were planning how to provide better care for kids with orthopedic, neurosurgical and other problems. We heard reports from people about care in the clinics. Not this week, but sometimes we hear stories about the staff people who built a custom saddle so a patient can ride horses with his dad again and the guy who built a prosthetic leg for a broken T-Rex toy so other children could continue to play with it.
Those sound like good people to me.
I spent Friday evening with the guys from Crossroads Wresting. Barry Perkins, Chad Martin and others organized a benefit for a young man who recently had a spine injury. They enlisted the help of a dozen or so wrestlers, referees, ring announcers, and even more sponsors to stage an evening of fun family entertainment for a good cause.
I’d say that’s another thirty or so good people, not counting all the good folks who contributed by buying tickets.
That sounds to me like a whole bunch of good people.
And don’t forget the wrestlers who donated their paydays instead of putting the money in their pockets.
I’m not going to argue whether or not the world is an evil place. It might be.
What I do know is that for such an evil place there seems to be a lot of really good people living in it and trying to make it better.
