“If I can’t impact people then this whole thing is a waste.” ~ Chris Rosati
Barry and I are avid fans of Steve Hartman’s segments on CBS Sunday Morning. A couple of weeks ago he had a tribute to Chris Rosati, a man Steve had profiled first in 2013 with subsequent updates. Chris lived in Durham, North Carolina and had ALS. He said that before he left this world, he wanted to make as many people happy as he could. His first plan to accomplish this was to steal a Krispy Kreme donut truck so he could give away donuts to cancer patients, and to children at local schools.
Somehow Steve found out about Chris’s plan and scheduled an interview. As Steve said in the initial interview, “This plan has some holes in it, and I’m not talking donuts,” to which Chris replied, “One of the blessings of ALS is what are they gonna do?” Chris admitted that his plan was wacky but he told Steve what he really wanted to do was change the world by making people happy.
Of course, when Steve’s story broke, Krispy Kreme gave Chris and his wife an entire bus load of donuts to share with as many people as he could. His good deeds didn’t end there. His smile and generous nature inspired people and especially children all over the country to do random acts of kindness. He had them make videos about their good deeds and then held a red carpet premiere of the videos. After that he came up with the idea of “Butterfly Grants” to help children fund their good deed projects.
Chris died earlier this month. When Steve asked Chris’ daughter what she’d remember most about her dad, she said she was proud of him because he tried to do something hard, he tried to make friends with the world.
It is sometimes hard to make friends with the world. Yet it’s people like Chris Rosati, who remind me that every little act of kindness, especially in the face of so many struggles, does make the world a better place and I shouldn’t stop doing it.
The thing is, I often get caught up in my old ways of thinking and start to assign blame, or I panic about things that I won’t even remember happened in a few months time. Yet I’m grateful that when I go into panic mode, something happens to remind me to take a deep breath, turn my thinking around, and trust that I’m taken care of no matter what.
Today as I was writing this post, something happened that brought up a lot of fear and panic. But I was writing about Chris Rosati and my little problem seemed so trivial and temporary compared to the challenges he faced. I’m sure he had bad days when he wondered why he was going to die too young, but he chose to help others rather than wallow.
So, in honor of Chris’s determination to change the world, I’m going to let go of my panic and feel good that, so far, I have had a really great life. I mean what can be better than being able to help and inspire people?
Thanks for reading. I appreciate your likes and comments.
Lucinda Sage-Midgorden © 2017
Lucinda is the author of The Space Between Time, a historical, time-travel, magical realism, women’s novel. It’s available in all ebook formats at Smashwords, and print-on-demand at Amazon and other fine book sellers. To join her email list, click here. She will never sell the names on her list.
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