real news

We should really call "the news" - on TV, iPad, or the radio - "the blues"; everything that is wrong with the world.
Because that is all you hear about. I can't even listen to CNN on the radio. I only read the articles on CNN about health, sports, or celebrities (it all depends). I never watch the news on TV, and if I do I feel depressed about humanity after that.
The ice caps are going to melt. Terrorists are attacking the world. All of the animals are going extinct. Politics are becoming so corrupt that they are tearing nations apart. Earthquakes shatter our planet. More people than we can fathom go to sleep every night in fear, famine, danger, and without homes.
That's all we hear about. Is there any compassion and kindness left in this world? Or are we all just ravenously greedy animals that fight for what we want and stomp everyone into the ground for what we want?
I want to believe that we are still humans who care for each other - who give each other shoulders to cry on, who tell each other it will be OK, who let each other know that they are doing a great job. But the way the world is painted is in a dark way. With greys and blacks and browns.
Today I was reminded of the good in our world. Something that someone did changed my day, and I don't even know him.
I was reading CNN on my iPad. The headline is about the corruption in Egypt. The next article is about how the Internet influenced these revolts. Next to it is an article about protesters around the world. Then there's one about a gas pipeline lit on fire in Egypt. And a picture of an Associated Press reporter with blood dripping down his face in Egypt. And then we move down and see: deaths in Tunisia. Protests. Troubled celebrities. Kidnappings. Homicide.
I almost closed out of the app and deleted it. I don't need to read this. But then a picture caught my eye. It was a man in a yellow shirt, holding his arms up high, crossing finish line. He was smiling so big that his cheek dimples pushed his sunglasses even further up. I opened the article.
"Marathon runner completes 365th straight race". A man from Ghent, Belgium, 49 years old, finished his 365th straight race. Every day he ran a marathon, 26.2 miles.In addition to this, he is the only person to do 20 Iron Man triathlons (my uncle has done 7) in one year.
He just finished this infamous race in Barcelona today. Since he started this 365-marathon journey, he has run 9,569 miles. He was told as a boy that he would not be able to run, or really do any sports, because of his asthma.
Yet he ran an entire marathon everyday. For a whole year. And he is almost 50.
Some people run one marathon in their whole life and they spend months training. For this guy, marathons are nothing.
His perseverance made me realize that there is a lot of bad, but there is also a lot of good. You just have to look for it.
Who knows..maybe you will be the next motivational CNN story. Turn "the blues" into good news!