So much of the world has been waiting for the results of the US election. But I thought today we should look at other news stories that are happening around the world. To paraphrase and co-opt some words of the bible- follow me and let the US election take care of itself.
First there is COVID. Today over 48,000,000 have contracted the Coronovirus since the Pandemic began. Numbers in Canada now stand at over 250,000 cases. This is awful. However, just to do a comparison Canada now ranks 31st in the number of cases. In July we stood at 19th in the number of cases. The situation in Canada is awful, but it is worse in other countries.
There is other bad news which hardly gets a mention in our papers. A 7.0 earthquake hit Turkey last week. Thousands have been left homeless. 116 are dead. In other news, horrendous flooding has hit the Philippines as a super typhoon wreaked devastation on the country. Streets in Manila are overflowing. Thousands of people have been left homeless.
But there is good news happening all the time in our world as well. The post Hallowe'en asteroid that was early in the year predicted to be on a near collision with earth zoomed by 137,000 miles above our head and caused no damage. Earlier in the year, a Kingston grocery store was left open by accident on a holiday Monday. Nobody stole anything and customers finding no staff in the store left money for the items they took. After the horrible massacre in Christchurch New Zealand last year, Biker gangs protected worshippers in mosques from facing further attacks. Dealing with wasted materials from their cereal production industry, Kellogg's has decided to work with a local brewery to produce beer from the corn that otherwise would have ended up in the land fill. In keeping with the theme of breweries, a small brewery has replaced the dreaded plastic rings that go around six packs (plastic which entangles wildlife or gets swallowed by them causing agony and death), these plastic rings have been replaced with an edible material for animals. Charlotte and Dave Wilner were so upset with refugee children at the border that they decided to raise $1500 to release one family from detention. In four days they raised $15 Million.
There is bad news all around. But there is good news as well. Let us not get bogged down in the sad news of our world. Instead, let us also be open to stories of hope. Let us keep a watchful eyes to the good stories that surround us and may this hope get us through. Blessings.