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If You’re Tired of Bad News, Read This

5 stories that will restore your faith in humanity…

James LucasNov 20

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In The Two Towers, Samwise Gamgee delivers one of the most powerful monologues in cinematic history. He tries to remind Frodo why they are on this long journey to destroy the One Ring by speaking of the great stories — the ones that really mattered. He explains that the people in those stories kept fighting because they were holding on to something. When Frodo asks him what they are holding on to, Sam picks him up off the ground and replies:

There’s some good in this world, Mr. Frodo, and it’s worth fighting for.

It’s been a difficult week, a tough month, and a challenging year when it comes to bad news. And yet, even in the midst of it all, these words linger in my mind, reminding me that the world is full of kind souls quietly doing good, helping one another, and keeping hope alive in ways we may never see. No matter how long or dark the night feels, the stars are still shining. Or, in the words of Samwise:

How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end, it’s only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer.

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It’s remarkable how, no matter how dark it gets, the world always finds a way to shine again. Sometimes it begins with a single act — a small gesture of kindness, a work of art that touches someone’s soul, or a life saved by someone’s empathy. These moments ripple outward, reaching far beyond what the eye can see, brightening days, changing lives, and revealing the profound beauty of being human.

Here are five stories that remind us of that beauty, and the extraordinary ways humanity can shine…

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1. Sebastião & Lélia Salgado: A Forest Born from Hope

There’s an old proverb that goes:

A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they will never sit in.

Many years ago, Sebastião Salgado, the legendary Brazilian photographer, returned to his family’s land in Minas Gerais only to find it ravaged. “The land was as sick as I was — everything was destroyed,” he said at a climate meeting.

“Only about 0.5% of the land was covered in trees. Then my wife had a fabulous idea to replant this forest. And when we began to do that, then all the insects and birds and fish returned and, thanks to this increase of the trees I, too, was reborn — this was the most important moment of my life.”

With his wife Lélia, he founded Instituto Terra in 1998 to replant native trees, restore watersheds, and rebuild biodiversity. Over decades, they planted more than 2 million trees, bringing back insects, mammals, and 173 different bird species.

Salgado once reflected:

Like to grow a baby, you need to teach it to walk, to speak, and then they can go to school on their own. Trees are the same. You need to hold them close for a while.

2. A Voice That Survived Death

Margaret McCollum lost her husband, actor Oswald Laurence, in 2007. His voice, however, lived on: Laurence had recorded the now‑famous “Mind the gap” announcement for the London Underground.

Years after his death, Margaret would return to Embankment station regularly just to hear him. When the recording was replaced during system upgrades, she wrote to Transport for London. Moved by her grief, TfL not only gave her a CD of the announcement but also brought back her husband’s voice at Embankment station, the one she regularly traveled through.

As she put it: “I love the fact that he’s back there … I can go and listen to him. It does bring him very close to me.”

3. Bill Murray: How a Painting Saved His Life

In a moment of despair early in his career, Bill Murray wandered into the Art Institute of Chicago and found himself before The Song of the Lark, an 1884 oil painting by Jules Breton.

He later recalled: “There was something about her face… it felt like she had been through something hard, and yet there was hope. If this girl in the painting can keep going, maybe I can too.”

That sudden epiphany — that another soul, painted in a field at sunrise, kept living despite hardship — gave him a reason to stay alive when he had none left. He later said: “It gave me some sort of feeling that I too am a person and get another chance every day the sun comes up.”

I want you to think of this story the next time you feel your art is futile or your creative pursuit isn’t worth the effort.

4. A Sanctuary for Stray Dogs

In Gravatá, Brazil, Father João Paulo Araujo Gomes saw stray dogs — vulnerable and abandoned — and opened his parish to them. Throughout the week, he cares for dozens of dogs in his rectory, and every Sunday he brings one to Mass, offering it a chance to find a loving home. Thanks to his compassion and dedication, many of these dogs have been adopted, finding safety and care they never had before.

His belief is deeply rooted: “They will always be able to enter, sleep, eat… for this house is of God and they are of God. Three of them stay with me. Today, they are my children and sleep in my bed.”

5. The Guardian of the Golden Gate

In 2005, Kevin Berthia stood on the edge of the Golden Gate Bridge. Officer Kevin Briggs, known for his work preventing suicides, approached him gently and said, “I’m not going to touch you… I just want to talk… and to listen.”

For 92 minutes, Briggs listened — not to fix, but to understand.

Berthia later reflected: “It was 92 minutes… and every one of those minutes it was me talking and him mostly listening.”

That moment didn’t just save Berthia’s life — it transformed it. Berthia went on to marry, raise a family, and dedicate his life to suicide prevention, saving countless lives in his own right.

Ten years later, he and Briggs met again on the same bridge, this time under far brighter circumstances:

Briggs has earned the nickname “Guardian of the Golden Gate” for having saved the lives of more than 200 people…

As Matthew McConaughey said in his 2014 Oscars acceptance speech:

It is a scientific fact that gratitude reciprocates.

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It’s easy to feel overwhelmed and exhausted when our attention is consumed by bad news, outrage, and endless negative stimuli. Social media algorithms divide the world into toxic echo chambers, and those in power profit from keeping us at each other’s throats. In this environment, it’s all too easy to start seeing only the worst in the world — and in one another. And yet, beneath it all, there is still immense goodness, and countless people quietly making a positive difference every day.

It’s precisely because of this that I believe we should act as if what we do truly matters… because it does. The examples you’ve just read demonstrate it.

Throughout human history, we have a duty to resist evil and keep it at bay. But I believe our greater responsibility is to focus our energy on doing good — to move ourselves and those around us toward the light. The best way to defeat darkness is to build the world we want to see. Salgado did this through his work, planting trees in places where the land had been devastated and hope seemed lost. But hope is never truly lost… As Alexandre Dumas once said:

All human wisdom is summed up in two words: wait and hope.

James Lucas <jameslucasit@substack.com

James Lucas – “Beauty is Truth” – Substack