Good News and Happenings

There is always more good happening in the world than bad.

MUSIC is always good news.

Everywhere  you turn there is ongoing news about COVID-19. Most of it has been number-related and bad news stories. For many, including me, these are anxiety-provoking, making me just want to turn off the radio.

There has also though, been a lot of good news!! Which, for the most part, is about people reaching out to help others. This reaching out has manifested itself in many ways. 

A few examples include:

1. Governments have come forward with stimulus packages and suggestions/directions on what each of us needs to do to protect ourselves and others, so we can eventually get rid of the virus.

• In keeping with my last blog, health care workers have been operating well above the normal call of duty. The people we say thank you to though needs to be expanded to people who provide the essential services we need e.g. food workers, delivery people, government workers, transportation operators and other essential service workers, to name a few. 

• Volunteers are coming out of the woodwork all over the world.

In the U.K., it is estimated there are over 2.5 million people who are volunteering in some capacity. In Canada, people are picking up groceries for their neighbours, looking after children, or calling someone to see how they are doing.

4) One  small alcohol producer I know of has turned their facility into making hand sanitizers. Some of its sanitizers have been given to an NGO who works with indigenous peoples, many of whom are on the streets and would otherwise have none.

5) Just by staying home, we are all minimizing the spread of the virus. That too is a way of helping, preventing the virus from spreading to others.

6) Video conferencing has increased many-fold and people have been getting together with their grandchildren and reading to them.  One person we know in Canada painted with her granddaughter in Ireland via video conferencing!  Some adults are having a pre-dinner drink with friends using video conferencing.

I am sure you can come up with many more examples.

This brings me to MUSIC,  which is also playing a role in the drama that is presently playing out as witnessed by:

• The many new songs being written about what is going on, some of them humorous.

• or how about the balcony singing from apartments in Italy and Spain 

• and the operas now available to watch online

I received an email from Jordan, describing what people there are doing. Attached to it was a link to some Jordanian music, to give viewers a lift.

Pat and I now limit the news we hear or watch, and instead listen to a radio station 96.3, which plays primarily classical music.

Celtic music was played on St Patrick’s Day.

Whatever your taste, try it.  It  could make you feel better.  

The always good news about music is it is one of humankind’s greatest creations, it is  ongoing and has and will be forever.

In fact, I have been thinking of doing a blog on music for some time. This idea was prompted by watching a piece on PBS about a month ago about the Dallas Street Choir. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=459jakiJ3xM

The choir was started in 2014  by Jonathan Palant in Dallas, Texas to bring homeless and severely disadvantaged people together.  It provides them with a sense of community, connecting them to the joy that comes from singing, using their voice to give them a “voice.”

If you want to read more about them, just go online and search Dallas Street Choir. You can even hear them on You Tube:

Music has inspired, lifted and motivated people forever, providing a way to tell stories, and express views and feelings.  In fact, Bob Dylan even won a Nobel Prize for Literature because of his songs.

Music is a key component of most cultures – think “Amazing Grace” played on the bagpipes, and indigenous and African drumming.

In fact, the most electrifying music I have ever heard, (in combination with their dancing) was in Burkina Faso in West Africa. It had everyone present energized, including me. I don’t think I slept at all that night!

I have only touched on a few of the  many positive things about music.  I will finish  with: It is one good news story you can make happen whenever you want.

Till next time,

Chris Snyder

Looking for some reading during this period of social isolation? Read some good news stories in my book, “Creating Opportunities: A Volunteer’s Memoir.”

You can buy it here in a Kindle edition, so you don’t have to have a book delivered.