Seeking the super

Got to see my friend and former co-worker Janna Barrett for a few minutes today.

Janna's off on her latest adventure. In the previous year, she's studied in Paris, moved to Chicago, and has now taken a position that lets her tour the world.

And I thought I'd done well to see 47 states and parts of Canada!

If I could create a dream job, it would be traveling and talking, my two-cent pale imitation of Charles Kuralt, getting off the highways and seeking the super. It's still there. You just have to look.

"The everyday kindness of the back roads more than makes up for the greed in the headlines," Charles once said on one of his poetic "On the Road" pieces for CBS. I still believe it. I've seen it. I've heard talk of it.

I've come to think that maybe those stories are more important than ever. Everything is crazy, confrontational, cantankerous, bombastic and bloody.

Don't get me wrong: we don't need to look the other way. Far, far from it. But it's high time somebody reminds us that good people are still doing good things, and it doesn't always have to bleed to lead, to throw you mediaspeak. And guess what? People can discuss, disagree, avoid yelling, and still be friends. What a concept!

I saw the super in May, at my first baseball game in two years, when the strapping young player brought a baseball to the scared little girl grazed by his foul ball.

I heard about it earlier, when a friend suddenly got stranded, and a couple who happened to be nearby loaned him a car to get to chemotherapy.

I read about it, believe it or not, in the newspaper. Sometimes you can even find it buried amid the BS that becomes one's Facebook feed during an election year.

Ideals and realities may be as far apart as the Pacific and the Atlantic, but that doesn't mean I'm going to stop seeking.

God knows I'm not perfect, and I'm just one little guy in one little corner of the world.

But if I can make you laugh or make you smile or make your day a little brighter by sharing a Good Samaritan's story, I'll take that any day over covering the White House.

That's an one-way slide toward insanity anyway if you ask me.