Quick poll: Could anybody use some good news right about now? Okay, here you go: My two newest grandchildren have rolled over on their own. Now, on an international scale of exceptional achievements, their accomplishments may not rank up there with Nobel Prizes or new vaccines. But the videos of those milestones certainly brought broad smiles to the faces of their proud grandparents. (As did the look on the face of the oldest granddaughter who got to see a giraffe up close and personal for the first time. Well, the look in her eyes at least. She was dutifully wearing a face mask on her visit to the zoo.)

Need more? Well, as of this writing, your favorite major league baseball team is undefeated for the season. Don’t know how long that will last, so I suggest you revel in the glory now. As a matter of historical note, only the 1869 Cincinnati Red Stockings have managed to go through an entire year without a blemish. This first professional baseball club initially beat the Great Westerns of Cincinnati 45-7. Fielding ten men on salary for eight months, with Harry Wright managing, the team played clubs from San Francisco to Boston and posted a perfect 57-0 record for the year. (They actually went on to win a couple dozen more games the next year before finally losing.)

How about this? Not one teenager got in a car wreck on Prom night – or did something stupid that changed a life forever while celebrating irresponsibly at a graduation party. Covid-19 may have stymied revelries this year, but at least safety was paramount, and perhaps bad things that might have happened simply didn’t.

What about the fact that we really haven’t been subjected to too much campaign bluster of late? During a typical voting season, especially in a presidential year, by now the mud would be so deep you’d need hip waders to get out of your front door. That’s not to say all political posturing has ceased. Shoot, that would take away all the fun. Other topics of discussion and dissention, alas, have occupied the lead news stories, but we might as well enjoy the small batch of electioneering fresh air while it lasts. Something tells me it’s merely a lull before a mighty storm hits our fair land.

Here’s a big one: Because kids are done with school for the year, at least in most of the country, the parents are finished helping solve the mysteries of fractions that they really didn’t understand themselves the first time around 20 or 30 years ago.

Proficiency in computer skills has risen dramatically. Raise your hand if you’ve learned about Zoom or video chatted more times in the last two months than in the entire two decades of the 21st century combined. And as a result, you’ve ended up talking to friends and family maybe more than ever before. Who knew that Uncle Harry and Aunt Bertha had moved to Florida? Or that your college roommate actually did know how to do something successfully in life besides chugging beer more quickly than anyone else in the fraternity house. Maybe out of sheer boredom you connected with people who were removed from your Christmas card list years ago.

The canals in Venice, Italy, are clear. For the first time in any resident’s memory, you can actually see the bottom of the waterways in the city where gondolas and other boats provide a main source of transportation. With a quarantined populace, humans aren’t mucking up the waters, so fish are visible and swans have returned. Of course, with Italy having been a hotbed for the virus, you can’t travel there to see that natural beauty for yourself, but the pictures are rather pretty.

Not only in Venice, but the water is clearer in oceans, and the air is far less polluted in many cities because cars aren’t being driven and factories aren’t belching toxins into the atmosphere. Breathe deeply while you can.

People are going to church . . . online. Hey, you don’t have to be dressed in your Sunday-go-to-meetin’ best to click on a livestream service. Nor do you actually have to watch a Sunday service on Sunday. But apparently, viewership is up. Families may actually be gathering around the screen together. God may have more of a captive audience than ever before.

I’m sure you can think of a few more good bits of news right now too. And whatever you come up with may very well beat any other frontpage story you happen to read at the moment.

 

©MMXX. William J. Lewis, III – Freelance Writer