I noticed that today is Bruce Willis’ birthday. He is 66 years old, for anyone who is counting. But that isn’t what hit me. I think most people associate him with the movie Die Hard. I was sitting here, recalling many of the scenes in the film, and it struck me as being quite the amazing story all the way through. Truly astounding. I thought, in real life, things just don’t get that crazy, over-the-top unbelievable.
Until I started reading today’s historical events.
On this date, in 1644, 200 members of the Peking imperial family and court committed suicide. They did this in an act of loyalty to Emperor Chongzhen. They say the number is closer to 900 suicides which included his other loyal supporters.
In 1687, the explorer Robert Cavelier de La Salle was searching for the mouth of the Mississippi River. During this, he was murdered by his own men. And that is how the tides turn.
Then, in 1775, an avalanche occurred in Italy. Four people were buried for 37 days. Three of them survived.
Again, on this day, in 1863, the Confederate cruiser SS Georgiana was destroyed on her maiden voyage. The ship was loaded with a cargo of munitions and medicines. Back then, this was valued at over $1,000,000. This wreck was discovered exactly 102 years later by a teenage diver.
Also on the water, in 1866. An immigrant ship called the Monarch of the Seas sank near Liverpool, England. A total of 738 died in that accident.
I could go on and on with this. All of these things, happening on this date, March 19, from one year to the next. Every single one of these things just as extraordinary as Bruce Willis, crawling through air ducts with an AK-47.
That is how history and the news go. It records the momentous, the stunning, the sensational. Most of the time, it is bad news. At least for someone. There are wars and beheadings. Ships sinking, and volcanoes erupting. Pangs of mayhem.
Rarely does history record the mundane.
On this date, in 1843, Lloyd Tarkins planted 27 acres in corn with his mule, Becky, just outside of Minster, Ohio.
Nope. It just doesn’t make the headlines.
But, isn’t this the better thing, somehow? Isn’t this the thing that helped his family, and maybe some others? Corn being planted in the ground? It may sound simple but think of all the people or animals that corn would soon feed. And how it went on from there, then giving them energy and nourishment to grow and move in other good directions.
It didn’t make the headlines, but.
That is most of us, thankfully. We don’t make the news or the historic headlines for the bad or tragic. Or conversely, we don’t find our way to the spotlight for the glitzy and Beyonce’ famousness.
Our lives move along, day today. And while we may think they are not important, I can assure you, somehow, in some way, they are. In taking any moment to be kind to someone, the wave moves out exponentially.
At some point in his life, Aesop said, “Plodding wins the race.”
I believe he was right. Moving from point A to point B. Doing the things that are right in front of us, trying to make sure that it is the next right thing.
Recently, I had to ask someone for some help from afar. He probably has no idea how much that means to me to have his assistance in this matter. For him, it may seem like the mundane, the plodding along in his life. For me, it is like having a gift, a magical breath of fresh air, and confidence, with sprinkles on top.
We need to remember there is much rightness in our world, in the midst of all the other things that make the headlines or the news.
There is good in the history we are making. In our plodding. And I have a feeling, as history does, this will repeat itself.
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Goodness is about character – integrity, honesty, kindness, generosity, moral courage, and the like. More than anything else, it is about how we treat other people.
— Dennis Prager
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The roots of all goodness lie in the soil of appreciation for goodness.
— Dalai Lama
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Goodness is the only investment that never fails.
— Henry David Thoreau
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Die Hard History. Or just the prosaic.
