During this holiday season, it’s hard to ignore what feels like an unending drumbeat of violence and misery in the world outside. Bondi Beach, Brown University and MIT, Hollywood and of course floods here in Washington that have devastated the lives and livelihoods of thousands. The news is so grim, so crushing, that the urge to find positives can feel like an exercise in ignoring reality.
So turn inward, toward friends and family. Get down to the neighborhood level. Focus on the mail carrier who always greets you with a smile, or the barista who knows your favorite drink by heart. And if friends and family are not a source of comfort, turn toward the helpers, as Mister Rogers used to say. They are everywhere.
Gov. Bob Ferguson hails the first responders, National Guard and emergency management staff who helped to rescue more than 620 people harmed by fallout from flooding over the past weeks.
Many other folks are lending a hand not as a job, but as part of being good humans. That heart shines through the final gesture of a Holocaust survivor who died shielding his wife from assailants in the Australian beach attack, and in the acts of a college teaching assistant who ushered university students to safety in Providence, R.I.
Closer to home, generosity of spirit is inspiring neighbors across the Puget Sound to help one another dig out of mud-choked homes. In West Seattle, neighbors even banded together to restore a holiday display destroyed in a windstorm. To them, the 250,000 lights involved were more than quirky entertainment. They created a center for camaraderie and memories — the things that keep us going in dark times.
So, yes, finding hope amid the facts of this painful year may feel like sifting silt for nuggets of gold. But there are other truths standing right beside us, and they endure.
