A two-year-old, a fire victim and a dejected boy

Have you ever noticed how a one-minute blurb on the news or on a TV show can strike you and stick with you – and maybe even teach you something?

Several of those have been whirling in my head lately. You may have seen one or all of them.

In the first story, an older lady slips and falls near her front door. She’s been caring for her two-year-old grandson. She starts shouting for help, hoping a neighbor will hear her. The little boy shouts for help too. They get no response and it’s getting darker out.

Grandma tells the little boy that she is hurt and can’t get up, and that she really needs her cell phone in order to call someone for help. She tells him that it’s very important, and that her phone is in the car in the driveway.

So he sets off toward the car in the dark. Her security system records his walk and his little voice: “Don’t be afraid. Don’t be afraid. Don’t be afraid,” he says out loud with every step. (Grandma told the news reporter later how afraid he had been of the dark, as many two-year-olds are).

The camera shows that he can barely reach the car door handle, but he manages to open it and bring the phone to his grandmother. She calls for assistance and gets the help she needs. She also tells the reporter that the little fellow had never opened a car door before.

That story speaks to me of one word: Courage. Whether child or adult, sometimes we just have to talk ourselves through something, don’t we? “Don’t be afraid…”

The next story came on the news one evening during the terrible wildfires in the Los Angeles area.

“I bought a toothbrush yesterday,” a man told the reporter. “That’s the extent of my worldly possessions. Maybe today I’ll buy deodorant.” His house had burned to the ground.

I sat there thinking, “And here we sit. We have everything. We have a house and everything we need – and so much more.” My husband and I both felt an overwhelming desire to send him stuff, all the stuff we take for granted, but of course all we could do was donate to a designated charity.

Gratitude. That’s the word that comes to mind. Sometimes that gratitude for what we have can lead to compassion for others with far less (or with next to nothing), and that’s a good thing.

The last story was not on the news but on TV’s “America’s Funniest Videos” – only in this case I found it more inspirational than funny.

A boy, perhaps age ten, is trying to sink a basketball through the hoop at his home.

The security camera records him saying “I never make a basket. Never. I’m sick of it.”

He turns his back to sulk away, but tosses the basketball over his shoulder as he walks. He glances back. He had made a basket! Backward no less! His face shows both shock and overwhelming joy.

He is so happy, and he had been about to give up – and I’m sure he was eager to tell someone of his success!

Perseverance.