🍫 Gulping down good vibes...

🤗 Don’t count compassion out. It sometimes feels like, more than ever before, tribalism has dug its roots into modern society for the worse. Whether it’s a political party, a demographic, or a culture, people tend to side with the group they belong to, no matter the issue. It’s as if conceding any ground on any issue is equal to an admission that one’s group is wrong on everything. So people dig their heels in, and as they do, they lose their ability to demonstrate compassion for a differing point of view or experience. That’s how society starts to feel so divided.

But all is not lost.

A research study at the University of Queensland in Australia recently found that participation in a workshop and compassion-based exercises could increase participants’ levels of concern for people who aren’t family and friends. That compassion extended to different groups and communities, individuals stigmatized by society, animals, the environment, and even plants.

Now there’s just the pesky issue of getting more people to more regularly practice compassion. For now, we’ll settle for the great news that people can expand their compassion and the recipients of it. We’re not too far gone after all. We can still find and share common ground.

👁️ An eye-opening parting gift. Crystal Jones was born with a condition that rendered her legally blind. But it didn’t have to stay that way.

Jones was exploring the possibility of a stem cell transplant to regain her sight, but there was a donor she hadn’t previously considered. Her father had diabetes and required cataract surgery, dealing with potential blindness himself. But when he suddenly passed away, it was discovered that he was a perfect match for a stem cell transplant. Despite his own issues, the cornea was still fit to donate.

Crystal received his cells in both her eyes, becoming capable of reading once again thanks to one of the dearest gifts her father could ever give. He can rest easy knowing he’s offered her such a wonderful improvement in quality of life, and with each beautiful moment of sight, she’ll feel her father’s helping influence.

📝 Good vibes from The Office. It’s rare we find good vibes at the office. Finding them from The Office - the TV show - is much more common.

Actor Rainn Wilson, who played Dwight Schrute, recently shared a napkin note left for him at the airport. The note read:

It’s just really cool that whenever we’re going through a rough patch, we can instantly turn to the comfort and laughs of familiar friends. Whether your gang is Michael and Dwight or Ross and Rachel, a mood-booster is just a few clicks away. Maybe it sounds silly, but this flight attendant is proof that cheap laughs can see people through some pretty dark days.

It’s beautiful that she took the chance to share her gratitude in such a subtle but powerful way. It no doubt made Rainn’s day, and it kind of makes ours too. Time to throw on the “Dinner Party” episode…

✈️ Lost and found. In the 1930s, Amelia Earhart was about as famous as people come - the Taylor Swift of the era, if you will. She was the second person (and first woman) to fly alone, nonstop across the Atlantic Ocean, as well as the first person to fly alone, nonstop across the United States. While attempting to fly across the world in 1937, though, she went missing, and neither she nor her plane were ever found.

Well at least until last week.

Search expeditions have long searched the Pacific to no avail, but surveyors Deep Sea Vision may have finally made the breakthrough. The team scanned 5,200 miles of seabed near her last-known position over the course of months using an unmanned underwater drone with SONAR technology. Last week, the group claimed to have found wreckage that appears to be Earhart’s Lockheed 10-E Electra.

While there isn’t necessarily confirmation just yet, the discovery may bring an end to a decades-long search for one of America’s great heroes and inspirations. It’s an incredible demonstration of the power of modern technology and an exciting development for those who welcome closure to some of history’s greatest mysteries.

🍰 How sweet it is. In January of 1940, shortly after World War II began, the United Kingdom started knuckling down for the long haul. The nation rationed all sorts of goods, and in July of 1942, the worst nightmare of some was realized: sweets and chocolate were added to the rationing list. Okay, okay, worst nightmare is quite dramatic in the context of World War II, but still…, bummer!

People were limited to a mere weekly ration of two ounces, little more than a standard-sized Hershey bar. It’s really no wonder the Wonka Golden Ticket campaign went bonkers.

However, it was on this day in 1953 that sweets rationing finally came to an end, sending children instinctively flocking to candy stores like the Salmon of Capistrano. It turns out the entire country morphed into Augustus Gloop chugging from the chocolate river: spending on sweets increased by 150% in just a year.

🏈 Super prize for a super Samaritan. James Damon wasn’t thrilled when his car was clipped on the highway. But when he saw the offending vehicle veer erratically across lanes and repeatedly into barriers, he knew this was no ordinary accident. When the car finally came to rest in the center median, Damon pulled over and quickly came to the driver’s aid.

She was unconscious, so he performed CPR until paramedics arrived. The woman lived, but if Damon hadn’t quickly replaced his understandable frustration with concern and compassion, it might not have happened. Pretty incredible.

Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield and the Buffalo Bills thought so too. Damar Hamlin surprised Damon, a teacher, at school with two tickets to this weekend’s Super Bowl. Damon, the selfless hero, took the opportunity to be selfless once again, using the spotlight to spread awareness about the importance of knowing life-saving CPR.

Enjoy the game, James!

🏔️ He scaled Everest….kind of. What’s the craziest thing you’ve ever done to get over a break-up?

Sean Gee has you beat.

The 37-year-old man living in Las Vegas was enduring a divorce and needed a way to occupy his mind. So what did he do? He climbed Mount Everest. Well…kind of….in a way.

Rather than pay ten-grand to do the real deal, he scaled the equivalent of Mount Everest from the comfort of his home. Using only the stairs inside his house, he climbed 91,784 steps - 11.8 miles over nearly 23 hours. He didn’t have to contend with the thin oxygen at the heights of Everest. He did, however, have to contend with walking back down his stairs as many times as he went up…and you’d have to imagine that’s enough to make a guy feel pretty, pretty stupid over the course of an entire day.

Gotta hand it to him. If I go upstairs for something, forget what I went up for, and come back down, there’s little-to-no chance I’m going back up. I’m certainly not going back up thousands of times. Yes, Sean, your recently ratified record is safe: I will not be attempting it anytime soon.

🏃 See you in Paris. Conner Mantz and Clayton Young are training partners and friends, and on Saturday at the US Olympic Marathon Trials, their collective dream came true. The two BYU alums finished 1-2, punching their ticket to represent the United States at the Olympics in Paris this summer. Having separated from the pack after a hard-fought race, the last miles were theirs and theirs alone to soak up.

But it left the awkward question: which one of them would win?

Young looked the far more comfortable of the two as they approached the finish line, engaging with the crowd and pumping them up along the way, while Mantz cut the figure of someone desperately trying to reach the end of a 26.2 mile race. You know, as one should. Despite the difference in comfort, as they closed in on the tape, Young took a backseat, gesturing with both arms to showcase his friend and partner, Mantz, as he crossed the line first.

He let him win. And in fairness to Mantz, who knows what would’ve happened if they had battled in a dead sprint to the finish? But this wasn’t just a gracious gesture. In ceding the gold to Mantz, Young was foregoing tens of thousands of dollars in bonuses from the event and from sponsors. Talk about selflessness. All that mattered to him at that moment was the joyful reality setting in: he was an Olympian, and so was his teammate.

An easy pair to root for in Paris.

👋 Get off me Morgan Freeman! Look, if at all avoidable, fans shouldn’t put their hands on players. They certainly shouldn’t grab their jerseys. When Auburn basketball player Johni Broome teetered off balance against court side seats, he felt supporting hands prop him up and then grab at his jersey. The jersey-grab was a step too far for Broome, who swatted the hand away without looking.

Imagine his surprise when he turned around and realized the hand he slapped belonged to Morgan Freeman.

The voice of (a fictional imagining of) God himself.

The realization washed over him quickly, and he rushed to offer an immediate apology, following it up with another later in the game. Freeman was reportedly gracious, though I’m still not really sure why in the name of Bruce Almighty he was getting so handsy. Anyways, he’s gotta rank among the funniest and most random people you could turn around to see after such an incident.

🐦‍⬛ A Raven plays hero in the skies. Mark Andrews had lived sporting agony last Sunday when his Baltimore Ravens fell in dramatic fashion to the Chiefs with a trip to the Super Bowl on the line. The tight end would take a trip of his own a few days later, not to Las Vegas, but to Phoenix, flying Southwest like a true man of the people. On that flight, a woman suffered a medical emergency, stumping medical personnel on board with a faint pulse.

It was Andrews who stepped into the aisle, suggesting that it could be the woman’s blood sugar and offering his diabetic testing kit. He instructed the Good Samaritan doctor and nurse who had sprung into action on how to use it, and eventually, the woman’s heart rate stabilized. An unsung hero who delivers reliable performance year after year for the Ravens, Andrews’ ability to step up when needed comes as no surprise to those who follow his career.

We’re dropping the “un” in “unsung hero” and singing the praises of a man well-deserving of them.