Now & Then & Etc

When I wake up and need something to start my brain and set me on a positive course, and conversely when I’m ending my day and I need to relax my brain, I’ve learned that reading of the good that someone has done works for me.

I just finished the book Voyage of Mercy by Stephen Puleo, which is about (as the title’s subheading says) “The USS Jamestown, the Irish famine, and the remarkable story of America’s first humanitarian mission.

The main characters in this true life story are two giving and intentional men, Robert Bennet Forbes of Boston, captain of the sailing ship Jamestown, which carried food to Ireland during America’s first aid mission to another nation, and Catholic priest Father Theobold Mathew of Cork, Ireland, the equivalent of a saint to the many victims of the Irish famine, for whom he labored incessantly. These two did great good for others.

There are many such stories of people having done good works. Reading about them makes the day nicer.