Everyday Extraordinary

Often times I’ve wondered what is it that makes one person seem extraordinary and another person ordinary, and I think I’ve finally figured it out. It’s simply public knowledge of what you did. That’s it! Take for example you’re walking home and you hear some kittens meowing from a storm drain. You look down the storm drain and indeed there are some kittens that have somehow fallen in. You lie down and attempt to reach them, but they are just too far away. You quickly go home and get what you can to help you retrieve the kittens and then go back and make the rescue. The kittens are now safe and you have the satisfaction of knowing that you did a good deed. Now take this same scenario but this time have a camera crew there. Nothing has changed except the fact that your good deed is now broadcast for everyone to see. Suddenly people you’ve never met before are walking up to you to shake your hand, pat you on the back, and tell you how inspiring you are to them. Your good deed is the same with or without the public attention, but somehow this makes you extraordinary as compared to before when you were alone and just plain ordinary.

What we don’t see are the everyday extraordinary feats that we ordinary people do. We give to charities, we volunteer our time for others, we take in lost and stray animals and give them homes, we give someone a dollar at the checkout line when they come up short, and we hold the door open for a stranger whose hands are full. So many things we do simply because it’s the right thing to do. Not for any public image or adulation, but because someone once did it for us and we want to repay the kindness, even if it’s not to the same person. It’s like the old adage that “It’s the little things in life that count.” This couldn’t be truer. We take for granted so many things we do every day to help one another, and then move on like it was nothing. Then when we get home and watch the news later that evening, we see a story about one person doing something kind for another person, and we think to ourselves, “What an extraordinary person they are! I wish I could be like them.” Truth is, you already are. You never hear on the news about someone who married, took a job, worked 40 years, raised a family and put them through school while teaching them right from wrong. Sometimes the most extraordinary thing to do in life is to keep plugging on day in and day out, week after week, month after month, year after year...