This disabled lady and her husband were having lunch, and the husband was kept from eating because he also had to attend to his wife. Seeing this, their waiter stepped in and took over the feeding duties, allowing his customer to finish his meal.

People do these things, but it usually requires them to “go against the stream” in one way or another. For whatever reason, most humans fear to do anything that they don’t see others doing. And so, every time someone undertakes an independent good action, they are breaking the collective complacency.

Again for whatever reason, these uncomfortable first-actions seem to be required for goodness to spread and thrive.

* * * * *

So, before going back to the mundane, remember a time when you acted on your own, against what you felt everyone else expected of you… a time when you went against the currents and acted first, because you knew it mattered. Spend a moment reliving it.

Two men, in the corner of a gym, with a calculus book. It’s not a big thing, but it’s a deeply effective thing. One many is trying to learn and the other is helping him… one an employee at the business, the other a client. And this was not a one-time event: these two huddle together over the calculus book almost daily.

These are the kinds of interactions – the kinds of relationships – that transcend all the artificial divisions of the world. Humans don’t do well as atomized individuals, but neither do they thrive in enforced groupings. These two men are creating something better than those choices: they are creating voluntary society… chosen and unforced relationships. And those are far healthier than the others.

* * * * *

And so, before going back to the mundane… the world of atomized individuals and enforced groups… please consider the unforced, voluntary relationships in your life. See if being unforced makes you feel differently about them.

This ballerina, Aesha Ash, took a day to go around the very poor (and quite likely dangerous) areas of a city, in her full ballet outfit, so that poor girls could see the possibility of a better future.

Poor kids very easily see no future for themselves save blight and difficulty. To see someone who looks like them, doing something successfully and very well, opens a world of possibilities to them. This is a very potent form of helping the young.

* * * * *

Now, before you go back to the mundane, please consider what you (and/or your friends) might do to help children see something better for themselves. Where and how don’t fundamentally matter; what matters is creating possibilities and hope in some child’s mind… giving them the sight of someone who actually did something and telling them that they can do the same.

On an appropriate evening, this gentleman carried his telescope and some signs to Walmart, and offered people a chance to see the planet Saturn with their own eyes.

To see something beyond the daily mayhem of this world – the loud, demanding images that refuse to be ignored – gives people a vision of something else… and the possibility of something better.

Humans need distant stars to guide by; without them, they can fixate on negativity and see it as inescapable. Inside that condition, progress locks up. This man gifted people with a view to the outside. There are many types of outside views, of course, but he had this one to give, and he gave it.

* * * * *

For a few minutes, before returning to the mundane, consider the things and the possibilities that lay outside of it. It will almost certainly be time well spent.

This bride’s father had died ten years prior to her wedding, but his heart was donated to a gentleman who would have died without it.

That man showed up at her wedding to walk her down the aisle. There is profound gratitude here, flowing both ways. It’s upward swellings of the heart like this that make life worth living and which make all of us better people… better beings.

* * * * *

Now, before you turn back to mundane living, try to do one more uplifting things, even if it’s a very small one. Hold a door open for someone, carry something for them, say a kind word, impart some type of benefit – no matter how small – to someone as you begin your day.

This is an Orthodox priest being true to his profession: standing between a militarized police force and people seeking a redress for their grievances. He is preventing violence at great personal risk.

Over the past few centuries, people with religious vocations have been massively maligned. On one hand, there have been more than a few actual reasons for complaint, and it’s not unreasonable to hold someone to a high standard if they claim to stand in God’s stead. But on the other hand, such attacks have become automatic and even malicious.

Religious people have done great good in the world, and their actions are fully as legitimate as anyone else’s. To flatly ignore all those actions is unfair and unkind.

* * * * *

So, before going back to the mundane, consider the good done by religious people, and especially all the kind and caring religious people whom the public stage expels and ignores. Their deeds matter as much as anyone else’s… whether we share their views or not.

Protesters and police officers are often at odds, but in the end they are all humans, and basic human kindness is called for.

The police officer in this photo was injured as a protest and the young man was not. And so he picked up the injured state agent and carried them to safety. He did this, not because he believed in the rightness of the state or the rightness of a cop threatening violence. Rather, he believed in the elimination and avoidance of human suffering… and he saw the cop as a fellow human being instead of merely an enemy uniform.

There is a great deal of good that can come from loving our “enemies.” We must see them as people, not targets.

* * * * *

Before returning to the mundane, imagine yourself in the position of the young man in the image: Disagreeing with and even being offended by what the police officer’s bosses were doing, but still seeing a suffering human being in front of him, and acting to repair it. Spend a moment with those thoughts, imagine others standing near you, imagine the cop’s feelings.

Helping one another is especially warranted when people are out of their element, scared and in jeopardy. Immigrants face this very frequently, and very strongly. And so, an immigration lawyer, waiting to help and without obligation, is more of a blessing than someone who hasn’t been in that situation might appreciate.

Whether or not this lawyer (or lawyers) gets any paid business from this, it is a powerful humanitarian act, and one the immigrants will not soon forget.

* * * * *

Before going back to the mundane, either remember or consider doing something benevolent for a person who is frightened and powerless. Go thorough the story slowly, feeling the events, and especially your enduring satisfaction afterward.

The man on the left donated part of his liver to dying mom, the woman in the center. That’s something that these people will hold dear for life… and which their children will hold dear. It invested them in one another.

And while collectivist ideals have shown themselves to be horrifyingly bad in practice – when they are enforced – we really are invested in each other over the long term. What our generation does will form the world the next generation receives.

* * * * *

Before going back to the mundane, consider what kind of world we’d like our grandchildren to live in. Consider also that the sum of all our actions will form that world.

There was a natural disaster where these people lived, and the electrical power system was down. And so, many people went to a large building supply store, to buy an electrical generator. Soon enough the store ran out, and the man in this photo got the last one.

On his way to paying for the generator, however, he learned that the woman in this photo had a father who was living on oxygen, and for whom a power outage was a serious threat. The man, who doubtless had considerations of his own, simply handed the generator to her, and wished her the best.

As we say, humans help one another, especially when they are able to see clearly. This situation allowed the man to see very clearly. Once he did, his natural decency rose to the fore.

* * * * *

So, before going back to the mundane, try to remember incidents when you were very clear on right and wrong… when you knew what was the right thing without a doubt. That type of moral clarity is far, far more important than people usually understand. Spend a few minutes with it.