Sorting through bad times for good news

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The stock market is soaring, which may not be good news for everyone and may be a blip on the screen, but it’s a profitable blip for many, and it’s good for the economy. Home sales jumped higher this month than they’ve been since May 2010. Maybe this is, if not the beginning of the end of hard times, at least the end of the beginning.

Also, gliding from greed to grit, 11 more billionaires have pledged to give half their fortunes away during their lifetimes, a la Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg and Warren Buffett.

In the arts, some of the world’s best writers have new books out this fall, including Michael Chabon, Naomi Wolf, Junot Diaz, Paul Auster and Salman Rushdie.

More good news: I read yesterday that a drug for newly diagnosed MS patients looks very promising and may help thousands who have the debilitating disease. Also, a California (of course) scientist has announced the discovery of a chemical in cannabis that seems to stop the growth of aggressive cancer cells. That sounds good to me, although they say you can’t get the benefit from just smoking the stuff.

If you go to the “good news” websites, there are more stories than you can stand about dogs that travel 300 miles to find their owners, sharks that save humans, and one nifty story about deaf gerbils that regain their hearing with stem cell transplants. I wonder how the scientists can tell.

There was a pig that saved a goat from drowning and a mama lion that raised a puppy instead of noshing on him.

The good news is there. You just have to look for it amid the cacophony of bad tidings.

More happy news: It’s autumn, and soon the leaves will perform their annual show for us. Just step outside your door these brilliant days and bask in the clarity of sun and sky. Leaves will soon be falling and the light will be fading, but we’re enjoying a particularly splendid streak of autumn weather. We can push the world away and step outside to walk the streets of our neighborhoods, embracing the good news of these fine days while they last.

Copyright © 2012 Randi Kreiss. Randi can be reached at randik3@aol.com.

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