40 in 40 Day #12

Day #12  As I write this blog I am continually touched by the depth of human compassion, creativity and perseverance. What human beings can do to love, to dream, to change their world and the world of others is unending and rarely makes the nightly news. My friend, Daphna Michaelson (Day  #7) has put a moratorium on watching news programs as she believes they give a distorted slant to the condition of our world, especially the United States. Her belief that human beings are good and are doing good was one aspect that spurred her 50 in 52 Journey. The more I write and investigate, the more I am filled with good will and hope.
Consider the neighborhood in Central Phoenix. It is an historic area of downtown Phoenix that young professionals and young marrieds have rehabbed, cleaned up and made their own. Small bungalows with well kept lawns and neatly trimmed foliage abound. On Almeria Street, the brightly painted homes, green lawns, and desert wildflowers were interrupted by a home that had seen better days and a lawn that needed cutting. The man who lived in this home was not a young professional, his family grown and gone. This gentleman was from the generation that Tom Brokaw coined the "Greatest Generation," the group of men and women growing up during the Great Depression, who fought in World War II and kept a strong home front.
A request to not name names leads me to call our elderly gentleman Mr. Smith. It was quickly apparent to the folks living near Mr. Smith that he was struggling with lawn care and at times he would be outside, in his bathrobe, sitting on a chair. The young men and women living in this particular area banned together and began to cut Mr. Smith's lawn. They then began to trim the trees and someone planted flowers. They began to say hello and listen to his tales from the war he fought so long ago. Young and old, friends. No need for social services as the neighborhood cooked an extra dish or two, when they cooked. Cookies wrapped with love made their way into his home and the men in the neighborhood did repairs. Mr. Smith was loved.
Was this reported on the nightly news or written about in the Phoenix Gazette? These were acts that showed the wonder, the grandeur of the human spirit and not the ugliness that surrounds the unending litany of  horrible that screams from newsstands, radios, televisions and now the homepage on my computer.
What the neighborhood did is easily duplicated. In another neighborhood close to Almeria, other neighbors came together to cut lawns, check security and water flowers as a home went into foreclosure. Those downtown Central Phoenix people are pretty nice. What could your neighborhood do?
Action Taken: Simple acts of kindness done on a regular basis.
Mr. Smith no longer lives on Almeria Street. His home was rehabbed during the real estate boom in Phoenix. It's a great neighborhood to live in.