Simple goodness

Parked in the lot of an old nursing home in southern Missouri, I saw an image that struck me. The car was old and painted a matte black with more battle scars than could be counted. The front right headlight was connected only by the single wire that kept it lit. Inside the seats were threadbare, the door panel gone, the leather on the console ripped. This car, and its owner, I presumed, had seen some rough times. But on the faded gray dashboard was a copy of the New Testament.

It struck me, that like its owner, even though the exterior was rough, the engine probably not running so well and the interior shabby and crude from a life hard lived, the heart was pure. Whomever this person was had come to work maybe on fumes with a sack lunch and a pack of cigarettes in the backseat to care for other worn-out hearts of gold.

We spend hours in the health-care field talking about the lack of staff and, particularly, the lack of right staff — people who care and come for not enough pay to do jobs that most people snub their nose at. I don’t think it’s just health care either. We see mass shootings and hear stories about kids being raped and then a story goes viral on Facebook about Bill Gates donating millions of dollars for Alzheimer’s research, or a group of nurses from a small, rural hospital starting a GoFundMe campaign for a fellow LPN with multiple sclerosis to have chemo treatments.

Ugliness in the world is raging, but good is still coming out on top. I’ve been studying a lot lately about the increase in mental illness, and by simply turning on the television or going by some of the strange, goth-type stores, I can’t say I’m surprised. We’re poisoning our own brains. Our brains are hard-wired from the old days for a fight-or-flight response. Our brains can’t distinguish the horror of a shooting 2,000 miles away from a car accident 2 miles down the road. In our brains it all comes out as horrible and we have to react. But because there is so much adrenalin surging in our brains, even if we are not consciously aware of it, our brains are doing what they are also wired to do in overwhelming circumstances, and that is fight, fight and fight until it has to turn off. Imagine a bug buzzing in your ear literally for hours on end and you can’t get it out. It’s like that. You know it’s there but there’s not a damn thing you can do about it. We have to learn to shut it off before it gets to that point.

I don’t watch the morning news anymore. I rarely channel surf because my brain is hungry for helpful, genuine information that makes my head feel good and makes me want to do good for other people. I do my housework to easy instrumentals and take time to swim to give my brain rest and quiet. Why do you think brilliant ideas come in the shower or in the middle of the night? It’s because your brain isn’t overwhelmed.

I wish I would have thought to put some money under the Bible in that old, beat up car but I was too busy thinking about what I had to do. Next time I will. And I’ll slow down when I get into that nursing home and visit with those who understand simple goodness.