This is a Waffle House in Alabama. On this night they were short-staffed and couldn’t keep up. And so this customer simply got up and started washing dishes.

Human life is complicated, and all of us could use some help from time to time. This man understood that and jumped in where it was needed, and where he was able. Without a doubt he went home feeling like he had injected some benevolence into the world. And certainly he had.

And almost certainly those who saw him were brightened by it.

* * * * *

So, make up your mind that you’ll take advantage of opportunities like the one shown here. Sometimes you’ll be able to, and sometimes you won’t, but try not to let such a possibility pass you by. You’ll benefit from it, and many others will as well.

The barber in this photo offers a two dollar discount on haircuts to boys, if they will read to him while they’re getting their hair cut. To him, improving the literacy of children is worth abandoning a bit of money.

Almost any of us can find some way to improve life… to improve the world and it’s future. And the truth is that most people would both enjoy doing it, and remain proud of it for the rest of their life. The primary obstacle is that people are overcome with the seas of negativity that flow through this world and never recognize their opportunities.

* * * * *

So now, before going back to the mundane, turn away from the world’s demands, and focus rather on what’s inside of you. The great psychologist Carl Jung used to say that people had no belief that anything good could grow out of their own souls. But that’s precisely where good things root and grow. Please take a minute to believe this is true for you.

This is another little act that matters a great deal. But beyond the exterior facts (holding an umbrella for someone who isn’t able to), this speaks to a reverence for, and appreciation of, human life itself.

Beyond the conclusions of almost every serious moral teacher that we are far more than mere “meat machines,” humans are very definitely creative beings by nature. We alone, among all known creatures, can create at will. We can decide to create, and can do so with no apparent limit. That means that every functional human is of seemingly infinite and certainly unlimited value.

* * * * *

Now before entering back into the mundane, consider the unknown and unlimited value of your fellow humans. We don’t know how good we can be or how far we can rise. Regardless of their previous errors, our fellow humans are treasures to be assisted… to be unfolded.

While seated for a long bus ride, this woman – obviously a seamstress of some description – decided to use the skills she had, and fixed the torn seat in front of her. She didn’t do this because she worked for the bus company, but because of her own, internal desire to repair what she could.

Little actions like these go much, much farther than it may appear. By them, such people sow not just improvement into the world, but decency, kindness, and a deep belief that we are able to improve the world.

People who believe themselves able to improve the world, generally do so. Those who do not, whither.

* * * * *

Please, before going back to the mundane, consider the small ways you are able to improve something. Then imagine the situations where you might do so. Spend some time on this.

It’s little things that save the world and make it livable; things like a strip of tape that someone went out of their way to paste on a raised piece of sidewalk. It’s a little thing, but important.

First, and obviously, it likely prevented someone from being hurt. But secondly, and perhaps more importantly, it showed every passer-by – probably hundreds of them – that someone cared. These are not trivial things: They are little images of decency and benevolence that will live in the minds of the people who saw this… and will ripple throughout time.

Eric Hoffer, famous years ago as a “longshoreman philosopher,” used to say that he judged the quality of a society by how well they maintained their infrastructure. That’s an interesting metric, and by it, whoever placed this tape passes as a force for good in the world.

* * * * *

Now, before you head out into the mundane, please decide that you’ll recognize small opportunities to do good, and will grasp them. All too often our mental inertia pulls us past such opportunities, but if you’ve decided in advance to take them, you’ll probably be able to cut through your inertia.

This elderly gentleman is making a card for his wife, which illustrates something written by the great historian, Will Durant:

The love we have in our youth is superficial compared to the love that and old man has for his old wife. 

Or, as Oliver Wendell Homes, Sr. once wrote:

Don’t ever think that poetry is dead in an old man because his forehead is wrinkled, or that his manhood has left him because his hand trembles. If every they were there, they are there still. 

* * * * *

Before re-entering the mundane, consider this image and these quotes; then try to see old people in a new light; Their bodies may have changed, but what’s inside them may be far more interesting, far more potent and surprising, than you’ve imagined. They are worth knowing well.

This is the spot, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where 5,000 people rallied spontaneously to free a man named Joshua Glover.

Glover was an escaped slave, whom US Marshals had arrested near Racine, Wisconsin and transported to the court house and prison that stood on this spot. As news of this spread, some 5,000 people showed up. They broke into the prison, freed Glover, and put him on a boat to Canada, where he’d be free.

It’s worth remembering that slavery in America was supported by the whole of the US government, and that the people who broke Joshua Glover out of jail were all law-breakers.

* * * * *

Before going back to the mundane, please consider the people of Milwaukee and others like them; they were willing to break laws and risk imprisonment to do the right thing and free enslaved people. What do you suppose they thought about when contemplating such things?

These are all the farmers of one rural area, and they’ve all shown up – with their equipment – to harvest the fields of a farmer who had just died.

The ultimate safety net in human life is friends and family; no matter how much systems try to replace that, they cannot surpass it. The vast majority of neighbors and family members, once they see a clear and benevolent purpose – once they attain moral clarity – are both willing and eager to help.

In fact, our vocabularies have colorful phrases for this: stepping up, doing the right thing, pitching in, being a stand-up guy and so on.

* * * * *

So, before going back to the mundane, put yourself in the position of one of these farmers. Consider all the little details that led up to an event like this; go through them slowly enough to feel them. Then imagine similar situations that would fit within your segment of the world.

This gentleman, in Dublin, Ireland, is retired and living on a pension. But he still wants to contribute to the world. And so, every day he prepares fifty cartons of curry and delivers them to the homeless and destitute of his city.

Until we are too infirm to do so, it seems that none of us is completely happy unless we’re contributing something to the world… doing something that makes the world a better place than it would have been without us.

To know that you’ve been a net positive force in the universe is a powerful source of satisfaction in any human life, and especially so as time diminishes one’s abilities.

* * * * *

Now, before you go back to the mundane, think about your own old age, no matter how far away it may be: In what will you find satisfaction?

This husband and wife had been separated for four years, due to bureaucratic red tape. The two other women (one of whom is out of the frame, save for her hand) were friends from a church in Ft. Worth Texas. It was they who worked long and hard to make this moment happen.

The value of going to church has been much maligned in our time, but there is great value in it. Yes, there can be doctrinal issues, and doctrinal bullies, but the benefits are not to be overlooked… and I’m not referring to the belief aspects.

In church, people spend an hour per week, thinking about ultimate issues… about actually being good, about working for the good… about improving themselves and their neighbors. A great deal of good comes of this. Humans, after all, are tremendously capable creatures: when they try to help one another, they very often succeed.

* * * * *

So, if you have a church or synagogue you like, make it a point to go: spend time thinking about goodness and love, about blessing your family and your neighbors. And if you think church is too problematic, start working on a replacement for it: a place that can bring people into weekly consideration of the most important aspects of life and the most important actions of life.