These are gods among us

The title of this post comes from one of my favorite passages in all of literature.  It's from an essay by Richard Selzer, a surgeon who turned writer on his spare time:

I stand by the bed where a young woman lies, her face postoperative, her mouth twisted in palsy, clownish. A tiny twig of the facial nerve, the one to the muscles of her mouth has been severed. She will be thus from now on. 

The surgeon had followed with religious fervor the curve of her flesh; I promise you that. Nevertheless, to remove the tumor in her cheek, I had to cut the little nerve. 

Her young husband is in the room. He stands on the opposite side of the bed and together they seem to dwell in the evening lamplight, isolated from me, private. 

Who are they, I ask myself, he and this wry mouth I have made, who gaze at and touch each other so generously, greedily? 

The young woman speaks, "Will my mouth always be like this?" she asks. 

"Yes," I say, "it will. It is because the nerve was cut." 

She nods and is silent. 

But the young man smiles. "I like it," he says, "It is kind of cute."

All at once I know who he is. I understand and I lower my gaze. One is not bold in an encounter with a god. 

Unmindful, he bends to kiss her crooked mouth and I am so close I can see how he twists his own lips to accommodate to hers, to show her that their kiss still works.” 


I never knew who Ernie Johnson was until one of my colleagues forwarded me this clip with the subject "Get out the tissues."

I'm always in awe of people like Mr. Johnson.  What he does for his son is the very definition of love.  

What gives me hope for this world of ours is that I've never even heard of Ernie Johnson.  So that makes me believe that there are thousands of Ernie Johnsons out in the world doing the same type of thing for the ones they love.

I just wish we'd hear about them more than stories on Bruce Jenner's car accident, how Flavor Flav was arrested, or David Letterman's final top ten list.

Here are some other videos that restore my faith in humanity and give me incredible hope for this world of ours.

Picking up Butch

Batkid Begins





What an amazing coach and opponent.


UPS makes a kid's dream come true

 

Team Hoyt




An act of true love




True sportsmanship



What these teams do for each other is amazing.




WW II Vet and Preschooler Best Friends




Baby boy hears his mother for the first time




And this one is my all-time favorite.  And it isn't even about a human doing something amazing!