Action 108 - Find The Good.

There's a lot of negative out there. The news is full of terrible people doing terrible things to each other. And what do these stories have in common? I can't do anything about them and reading the stories breaks my heart.

Action 108 - Find The Good. The media may choose to focus on horrible stories, but that doesn't mean that I have to do the same. I have the power to choose what I consume. And today, I'm choosing something with a positive spin.

A terminally ill teenager given only months to live voiced an unusual regret to a friend last month—that he would never read the final, unpublished novels in Harry Turtledove’s The War That Came Early series. The friend posted a message on the Internet site Reddit, which was spotted by writer Jason M. Hough, who shares a publisher with Turtledove. Thanks to Hough’s efforts, the sick teen received both an advance copy of Turtledove’s next book and a phone call from the author himself. Hough played down his good deed. “I just made a phone call,” he said. “Right place, right time.”

Yes, this teenager is dying. And yes, it makes me sad. But I choose to focus, instead, on the generosity of the author and what a tremendous gift he gave. In a life soon to be cut short, the chance to read a treasured novel long before it's available to anyone else is a simple but meaningful pleasure.

The world is full of good people doing good things. They deserve more of my attention, not less. And they'll get it.