I need some good news.

In which I consider -- nay, create -- some good news for myself and for you.

I know. There is way too much bad news out there.

Texas has passed a despicable anti-abortion law that pits neighbors against each other. Like the Chinese Communist Cultural Revolution, for god’s sake.

Forty-nine states (can that be true?!?) have introduced restrictive voting laws into their legislatures this year.

The Taliban have taken over Afghanistan.

The jungle in the Bukit Barisan Selatan National Park in Sumatra is disappearing.

School is starting in uncertainty, hospitals are filling up, too many people are dying, health care workers are feeling exhausted — that is, COVID continues to discombobulate.

Feel free to add your favorite Bit of Bad News.

I’m just gonna cut to the chase rather than create a big buildup: The good news is that

human beings are in the picture.

What the hell am I talking about? Aren’t human beings these days revealing themselves way too often to be inescapably, unforgivably fuckin’ people?

Yes. Yes they are.

But here’s the thing: Human beings also engage in, actually require, relationship.

And relationship is super-powerful. It’s the means by which we grow and develop. It’s the means by which we learn. It’s the means by which we repair, repent, replenish. The forces that connect us to other people, to animals, to trees, to our own bodies and breath, to ideas, to beauty are uniquely relieving, healing, peace-making. If those forces are used properly, then relationships are transformative.

And every single human being, because we’re human, has the ability to mobilize the transformative power of relationship. To be better ourselves. Through our own actions, to invite others to be better, too.

So. What good news can you create today?