Weekend Column – There Is Still Some Good In This World

Jul 28, 2014 by winjaw

Sam: “Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you. That meant something, even if you were too small to understand why. But I think, Mr. Frodo, I do understand. I know now. Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn’t. They kept going. Because they were holding on to something.”

Frodo: “What are we holding onto, Sam?” Sam: “That there’s some good in this world, Mr. Frodo… and it’s worth fighting for.”

(From The Lord of the Rings trilogy)

The headlines have not been very uplifting over the past few weeks.

Here’s a quick recap, but hang on till the end.

Last week, a surface-to-air missile took down a Malaysian airliner over Ukraine. Nearly 300 people, including about 80 children, were killed. International hostilities are growing, with multiple countries placing blame on Russia.

Earlier this week an Air Algerie crashed in northern Mali. The cause is unknown, but 118 people are believed dead. Just a few days prior, a TransAsia Airways plane crashed, killing about 50 people, but miraculously a few survived.

Not a good time to be flying.

But that’s not the half of it. The western United States continues to burn with uncontrollable wildfires. California is facing the worst drought in its history. Along the Eastern seaboard, flash floods and storms are flooding out entire communities.

Overseas, Israel has invaded Gaza in an effort to stop Hamas from firing rockets into its country. More than 500 people have been killed. A United Nation-sanctioned refugee site was bombed, killing at least 16 and wounding more than 150.

And then there’s the Islamic State, which continues its terror of death in Iraq and Syria. Christians within areas it controls are being ordered to convert or face execution. The United Nations is investigating reports the Islamic State has ordered all females to undergo genital mutilation.

It makes one want to just pull the covers up and stay in bed.
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But there are other stories as well. More uplifting.

Meet Noah Aldrich, an 8-year-old from Idaho.

Noah heard about an upcoming YMCA-sanctioned mini-triathlon and decided he wanted to participate. He trained for three months.

He also decided to take his brother, Lucas, with him. The only issue was his 6-year-old brother has lissencephaly, a rare brain malformation, according to an article in the New York Post.

Lucas cannot walk, eat or talk by himself. Noah was not deterred.

According to the newspaper, Noah started off the race with a 200-meter swim. He pulled his little brother behind him on a raft.

When it came time for the bicycle section, Noah hooked up a bike trailer towing Lucas. And for the final one-mile run, Noah pushed Lucas across the finish line in a jogging stroller.

“It was really exciting to watch them and a little nerve wracking as parents, but they did so good and we’re proud of them,” their mom, Alissa, said in a television interview.

Yes, there is still some good in this world.

To learn more about Noah, Lucas and how they are changing the world in their own way, please visit www.lucashouse.org .