Yesterday I found myself in a rather random place at a rather random time. After perusing the aisles of the library, I discovered a book called "The Power of Kindness," by Piero Ferrucci and decided to enjoy it - along with the remnants of the Coke Zero can that I had with lunch - on one of the cozy, overstuffed chairs by the South windows. All was well, until I became distracted by a discussion taking place between two elderly men who, truth be told, were some of the only other poor souls - aside from this awkward twenty-something - inhabiting the library on such a glorious spring day. They happened to be browsing the "Religion" section, and what I heard went something like this:

Grumpy Old Man #1: Do you see this Billy Graham guy? HA! I can't even believe it!

[Slightly Less Grumpy] Old Man #2: Oh yeah, Billy Graham. I know him. What are you getting
at?

Grumpy Old Man #1: Well, clearly, he's never worked a day in his life. He just gets all dressed up
and connives people into thinking that he's holy or something. HA! As if he
actually believes in God! I highly doubt that he does. He's just in it for the
money. All of 'em are. Don't get me started on that Benny Hinn...

[Slightly Less Grumpy] Old Man #2: Now, Benny does take it a little far, I think. You're right.

Grumpy Old Man #1: Of course I'm right! I did a lot of thinking when I was in jail, you know.
Time in solitary confinement really gets the brain working. I've thought
all about this stuff, and I've decided a few things, to say the least.
Consider how corrupt our world really is, would ya?

[Slightly Less Grumpy] Old Man #2: There certainly is a great deal of wrong, I'll agree with that.
I'd be more apt to criticize politicians than these religious
guys, though. I sort of think that they have a point... some
of them, at least...

Grumpy Old Man #1: You haven't read enough Astronomy or Science. Read it, and you'll realize
how pointless this "God" stuff is. I agree with you on those bloody
politicians, though. I can't believe how ridiculous that Arnold
Schwarzenegger is! I mean, honestly! He hasn't worked a day in his life!

[Slightly Less Grumpy] Old Man #2: Do you know what "Schwarzenegger" roughly translates
to? "Black Plough Man." Interesting, eh?


I'll spare you the minutae of the rest of this conversation, but ask you to think about how overridingly negative it sounded to the casual eavesdropper. I started to take an inventory of how many positive versus negative things I'd encountered in the past week, and... wow! I must say that we North Americans are seemingly followed by a cloud of negative energy. No wonder there are so many cases of depression! The cloud is almost impermeable. Like lead. And now that I have noticed it, I've decided to take some action in helping to "clear the skies," if you will. Earlier this year, my housemate and I got into an argument. He was angry about a situation that was happening between friends, and I kept urging him to look on the bright side, and to analyze from every angle - trying to step into the shoes of the people he was so frustrated with. Of course, this didn't go over well, and he snapped at me for being so positive. "There IS bad in the world, Caitlyn." Well, DUH, I felt like replying. Obviously nothing is perfect, but I really feel that we tend to become so focused on the things that are less-than-favourable, that we often fail to recognize and appreciate the GOOD that remains in the world.

[Enter my rose-tinted sunglasses. And this blog.]

My goal with this blog is to brighten your day, whoever you are, by reporting on random acts of kindness, happy happenings, and the kinds of things that newspapers don't print so that they have more room to share the bad news. Feel free to help me out.