Wouldn’t it be amazing to start each day with exceptionally positive news, and stories of everyday life that reinstate that faith in humanity, cuddle our hearts, and give us a good dose of fuzzy feelings, warm and comforting?
Unfortunately, on any given day, page 1 of everything, printed or digital, when it comes to news it’s either a body count or a shower of chilling stories making horror violent splatter movies look like rom-coms.
My coping strategy for starting the day right or finding a moment of comfort is always to look for animal rescue stories, the dog that had it so bad but now is living his best life, the kitties who were drowning but got saved by the good samaritan and now have found new homes, and have you seen the happy baby goats? I find refuge in animals because second chances are just wonderful to witness, until I stumbled upon The Good News Movement a collection of positive news coming from journalists who want to contribute to positive news coverage, about everything not just animals.
Sue Papadoulis, a former news journalist who for decades dedicated her life to covering those front pages filled with hardship and gloom, is the founder of this initiative.
“It started out as a simple Facebook group creation, one day when I was waiting to board a plane, I thought I should do something tangible to gather good news and people who want to read them in one place, and on the spur of the moment I just created the page. By the time I landed, I had five hundred members and I thought I was clearly on to something that had big potential” she said.
From then on, and five years later Sue dedicated part of her time to building a network of good news journalists and created a platform that today covers good news stories, original or coming from other papers, as well as submitted directly from the public.
Why haven’t you heard about that, you may wonder?
The good news doesn’t travel as fast as the bad one it seems.
Sue’s initiative is not the only one, there are other similar good news aggregators initiatives that have popped up here and there, but it seems that a coalition for a larger-scale collaboration is what is needed to create an impact of magnitude.
“It is very hard to convince people to share good news, individuals, or corporations shy away from telling the good side of their stories. Here in Australia, we call it the Tall Poppy Syndrome, when someone fears that sharing positivity, good news, or successes may just compromise them and impact them negatively attracting negative reactions” Sue explained.
Somehow, I understand but also it makes no sense that good news attracts bad reactions, we do need a collective mental health check if that’s how we respond to positive stuff.
I may be biased, having a profound love for the word GOOD, and a deeper attachment to feeling positive, but I love to think that my success, my blossoming, or my achieving does not take away from anyone else’s: the world is abundant and the only people creating scarcity are those operating from the dark corners of a glass always half empty.
And so, what turned a seasoned journalist into a catalyst for good news? I guess you’ll find that answer in our podcast conversation at the end of this blog, but what I want to share here is one of the best impact stories that the Good News movement has generated.
“This was a story from one of our journalists that while on holiday she saw this traffic warden, one of those who help the children cross the street on their way to school, and he was happily dancing and performing as the kids were crossing when the lights were red, providing happy moments, and entertainment for everyone. We shared the story and it went immediately viral, we then learned the warden in question was someone actively trying to breakthrough in the entertainment industry and since I have a PR company, I thought about using our connections to get him to audition and before you know it, one simple good news article coverage gave this man a new successful career opportunity” Sue explained.
I am not crying, you are crying! These are absolutely the kind of stories that make me want to wake up and do more, for the people around me, and be kinder because there is so much to be grateful for!
What are you going to do today?
Find some inspiration in the pages of the Good News Movement, start your own “ Acts of Random Kindness” and tell Sue what you are doing, not because we need to parade charity to make it meaningful, but because other people may be inspired to the same, and right now we are in a huge social, humanitarian crisis, and we need everyone’s contribution to inspire more kindness.
