Things that make you think there is goodness in the world.

[CalamityGladys]

Have been feeling really low and overwhelmed by all the nastiness that is going on then somebody/something turns it round. Like Farage mouthing off and then the RNLI get massive donations. Like a customer withdrawing their business over rainbow decorated cupcakes and the next day there were queues outside buying up all the stock. Like Marcus Rashford and the wall of notes - sometimes you just need to read these things. Any more? It’s

The end of Saddam Hussein was the big one for me, after he was so cruel to so many it felt good that he was discovered hiding in a hole. And his botched execution video with people slagging him off as he died - no less than he deserved.

Also the the Gaddafi death - again, he was such a nasty person, it was good to see that his final moments were so brutal. According to Wikipedia he was beaten, "sodomized with a bayonet" and then shot several times. That bit didn't make the BBC version I think. Some kind of justice for the Lockerbie bombings at least.

Unexpected direction there @ChainJane

That's not so much a description of goodness on the world as perhaps the sharp end of bitter justice.

DH often does stuff like this, if someone is short of money at the till he will often pay for their shopping. A few weeks ago in the hot weather some kids were buying ice cream at a van, went to pay and realised they didn't have anywhere near enough money. DH paid for the whole lot.

I was going to say the RNLI donations as well.

Also Lewis Hamilton standing up for the LGBTQ community in Hungry and the other causes he uses his voice for. That warmed my heart today though.

I have been having a horrible time lately (significant bereavement) and an old work colleague heard I was off sick, messaged me and took me out for dinner. We had a lovely time, it was just what I needed. While we were eating she told me that I had been the only person who got there through her Dad dying. Apparently the things I had done had made all the difference to her. I was so touched, in my opinion I had done very little, I'd sent her a book on dying naturally, spoken to her a few times and gone out to dinner with her. It had honestly not registered with me that it had been a big deal at all. I woke up this morning thinking how we can impact so much others lives without actually putting ourselves out at all. If she hadn't mentioned it, I'd have never known I'd done anything particularly special.

So lovely that she them reciprocated too.

Most of my colleagues. I work for a civil service department with a very high proportion of lawyers, economists and data scientists because of the work we do - extremely clever, talented, experienced people who in most cases could choose to work for several times their civil service salary with a magic circle law firm or a huge multinational company, but are here, committed to doing good for the public and the UK at large and wanting to use their skills and intellect to find the answers most likely to achieve that. This is genuine public service, and I actually find it quite moving.

Well yesterday I got off a long distance train and helped an old woman get all her bags off. Then I accompanied her two tram stops in the wrong direction for me because it didnt look like she was going to manage.

In london last week a man ran after me to give me £20 he had seen me drop.

I had an expensive bottle of perfume I was selling and when the woman came to collect it she was so nice I just thought fuck it, and gifted it to her.

On holiday in Scotland recently, we’d just parked up in a pay and display car park and then realised the ticket machine only took coins and we didn’t have any. A lovely lady insisted on giving us a £2 coin. We were so grateful.

This is an incredibly small thing. I was working in the grounds of a huge block of flats recently in the awful heat. A lady came out of her flat with ice lollies for me and my colleague. I was so grateful I could have cried. Then about 10 minutes later a man gave us some Costa espressos because he thought we might need a boost of energy. Lovely, kind people are everywhere.

I’m my experience the vast majority of people are decent, open-minded and helpful. I think that there is a minority who project their prejudices onto others and then convince themselves that most people are bad without attempting to understand. The best example of this (though I am reluctant to use it) is Brexit. Thus a Remain argument goes ‘I am a decent person who wanted to remain in the EU for good and positive reasons therefore anyone who wanted to leave the EU must be bad and wrong and any attempt to explain otherwise is them either being dishonest or stupid because they are bad and wrong’. If you fall for this negative way of thinking you could easily believe that the majority are bad without ever engaging with their positive motives. I have numerous stories of people being lovely. Every single day my neighbours, colleagues and strangers are kind and positive. You won’t read about this on the internet or in the newspapers though.