Great People (Tara Taylor Quinn)

Looking at the news - which I try NOT to do as often as possible - one could easily be convinced that our world is largely filled with avaricious people, cold hearts, evil, meanness and death. I fully realize all those things exist. All I have to do is look at today's local headlines. An ex-Bengals' football player who was part of four championship seasons is in his fifties now and is in court for writing a bad check for $13,000. And there was a baby found dead on the side of the road in Texas. Male. 3 months old. A car seat was found quite a distance away - almost as though someone had been driving down the road and trashed the kid, as though he were a used and unwanted candy wrapper. He's dead, of course. Here in Dayton, Ohio, the news has been filled with the picking of a jury for the China Arnold case. You know China, she's the woman who allegedly put her one month old baby in the microwave and cooked her to death. But she didn't really mean to, they say. She was too drunk to know what she was doing. Also here at home this week, a teen aged boy, a freshman in high school is in juvenile detention for stabbing another teenager earlier in the week outside a local library. They were fighting over money. And there's a ten year old boy in detention who's been charged with the rape of his seven year old half sister. I guess he admits doing it. They're throwing the book at him. And there's several articles about car accident deaths. And, of course, every single day an update on the Marine I wrote about last week. She's the one who was 8 months pregnant and found dead - with her baby son still inside her - and charred in the backyard fire pit of a fellow marine. She was twenty. He's apparently 21. He ran to Mexico, where he was born and the Mexican authorities wouldn't extradite him because prosecutors were going after the death sentence. So a deal was made. They wouldn't go after the death sentence only if he's arrested in Mexico. Now Mexican authorities have issued a warrant for his arrest. And her body was returned to Dayton where she will be buried, with her son, on Saturday.

Where's the news about the good things? About the great people? If all we spread is hate and meanness and law breaking and fear, then how can we expect to get anything but those things? If that's what we're going to put out there, that's what we're going to get back. We're manifesting an evil, fearful world, I fear.

Yesterday in the news there was a story about a local man, in his late forties, who was in jail for having solicited sex with what he thought was a minor, over the Internet. Turned out he was communicating with a police officer. But what about all those guys that really are talking to fourteen year old girls? And yet, we say that pornography on the Internet, for those over 21, is legal. So this forty something guy joins a site, and he sees lots of pictures of young woman who shave their bodies to make themselves look like young girls, and then we are shocked when the man suddenly desires one? What about that ten year old who raped his sister? He had her put on a skirt without panties. Where do you think he got that idea? Television maybe? Or the Internet? Used to be ten year old boys thought about hitting home runs and becoming race car drivers. Used to be that ten year old boys thought girls were gross. We just had a local coach found guilty of sexual activity with the girls on his soccer team. They were twelve and up. And a twenty-six year old male teacher guilty of having sex with at least one of his high school students. But we, as a country, say it's okay to put it out there. Heck, these days, people send pornographic jokes and pictures to friends as forwards and everyone laughs and thinks the jokes are funny. What in the hell are we doing here? What are we creating?

I have a few of my own news bites to put out. And while I used to write for the Dayton Daily News (way back in the olden days when my new husband was still my first and only boyfriend, the first and only man I'd ever kissed) I don't have the time to pitch these stories to them. So I'm publishing them here.

Gordon B. Hinckley Lived
The world has been a better place for the past 97 years because of a great soul that walked among us. Small of stature, the man moved mountains. Literally. He tripled the number of temples in his church in a few short years, without putting the church one cent into debt, so that people would have places for special worship without having to sacrifice everything they had to get there. He counseled with world leaders, including the President of the United States who counts him a friend, he kept his wife by his side, openly loving her for 67 years. At 95 he traveled to numerous different countries, harsh countries to spread faith and love to all those he saw. At 97, just last Friday, he was at work in his office, directing, making decisions, loving. Just as always. He wrote a book that made national bestseller lists. It's called Standing For Something and if one was only going to read one book this year - that should be it. He wrote another highly popular book for young people about the nine ways to be. I heard him speak in person once. His rhetoric wasn't all that great and yet I sat and waited for every single word because I knew that I would want to take them into me, upon me. And I was right. The positive life messages he imparted were accessible. Doable. Probably because he did them all. He lived them all. Nothing was beneath him. He farmed. He built parts of his own house. He worked on the railroad during the war. He was sickly his entire life - suffered terribly from allergies. And he lived to be 97 years old. Not only that, more than that, he lived with joy. He was a truly happy man.

Lee Ann Williams Touches Lives
Lee Ann is a small person, too - in body that is. Small boned and feminine with a sweet voice and big heart. She lives in a small town in Northern Michigan. She works in a factory and has for many years. She's a mom and a wife. A daughter, a cousin, a friend. And she is an icon. This is a woman who refuses to let life stop her. Bad things happen, you don't run, you don't hide, you take them on and make life good. Even when bad is happening life is good because she continues to love and be loved, no matter what. She was left alone with a small child to raise, no money and a house that needed repair. Lee Ann worked hard to buy her daughter those things she needed - and then filled the gaps with time and love, good cooking, games, quilts and memories. And she taught herself how to do everything else. When the bathroom needed repair, she built a new one. By herself. Floors, tile, tub, toilet, all of it. She bought. She laid and installed. She's married again now, to a wonderful man. A man she adores. Who adores her. They have a much larger house. And are raising a beautiful, smart and kind teen aged daughter. And now Lee builds beauty on the outside. Walking through her gardens is an experience - and takes a while. She can name every flower, every breed. She can tell you colors and smells and growing seasons. Mostly, no matter what she's doing, Lee Ann shares joy. She likes life. She's happy to be alive. Being around her makes me happy to be alive.

Paula Eykelhof Is The Best
Paula Eykelhof is my editor. She has been for more than ten years. Probably closer to fifteen. In a working sense, she is my partner. Together we create books that we send out into the world with bated breath, hoping that they are well recieved. That everyone likes them. When a published author group voted to give out an editorial award each year, Paula was the very first recipient. From what I'm told from contest people the number of votes she received was overwhelming. I've traveled a lot in this business. Met with many many professionals on all sides of the publishing gamut, and always, when Paula's name is mentioned, there is respect, an acknowledgement that she is the best. And she is. She feels her work. But it's more than that. She uses her work to contribute to the world, to make the world a better place. She uses her talents and gifts unceasingly, giving every bit of herself into every project, believing in every project, in her authors, and investing the energy into their lives and their work so that the end result is always far more than it would have been without her. Paula has brought her love of the written word, her gift for 'hearing' the story, into my life and made me more complete. She's allowed me to have a happiness that I otherwise would not have known.

Timothy Lee Barney Is
I left this one last on purpose because it is the news bite closest to my heart. Here is a man who truly IS. As we all scramble around trying to figure out who we are and what our purpose is, Tim lives. He's fit and strong and well. He has a college education, a white collar job that he's had for years, great benefits, a nice retirement, owns a nice home and drives a nice SUV that he owns free and clear. In a worldly sense, he's got it made. He's a success. But none of these things are what make my news bite. Tim is a man that stands out not just because he's the love of my life, but because of WHY he is. This is a man who knows himself. Who makes no apologies about who he is. This is a man who likes himself. He is real - no matter if we're at a swank cocktail party in New York, or removing an old toilet from our bathroom. He lives life to the fullest. He's multi-faceted. A boy who throws caution and plans to the wind and plays without guilt. A responsibility general. A shopper. A builder and a fixer. (He could give Tim the tool man a run for his money.) A biker and a rollerblader. A camping aficionado. He's a dancer - the man can clog, I kid you not. He's an adventurer. And he likes to veg out in front of the TV and watch some weird guy eat gross things. He quotes from the discovery channel. He's a wordsmith and a jokester. He's not fond of politics but has a deep and clear understanding of the economy and the needs of the people. He's a father who isn't ashamed to cry over his children. And a husband who tries, always, to do his best. When he comes upon someone in need, he reaches into his pocket and pulls out what's there, handing it over. And ninety mornings out of a hundred, when this man gets up, he smiles. He faces the day, no matter what it might be, with an eye for finding the joy. For being happy. Every single day, he challenges me to do the same.

And I challenge all of you. Let's not manifest evil or bad or meanness. Let's manifest kindness and good. Greatness and happiness. In our lives, but right here, today. Come on everyone, even if you've never posted before. Tell us something good. Give us a good news bite. Lets see if they really are out there in numbers to compare with the bad.

Let's make life worth living.