My best friend Paul is the most amazing person I have ever known, without question. He’s a tremendous friend and despite being thousands of miles away, I feel closer to him than many people I’ve known my entire life.

Yesterday he posted a remarkable blog entry about keeping hope and working to make a difference. It touched me, and I think it’ll touch you too if you’ll take the time to read it. A quick excerpt:

I often sit up at night thinking about the amazing things that humanity has accomplished. For every war we’ve ever waged, or genocide committed, or lie we’ve ever told, we’ve done something absolutely astounding. Human beings – nothing but flesh and electricity, mind you – built the Great Pyramids, the World Trade Center. We have walked on the moon, orbited the earth, created moving images that can be transmitted via flickers of light. We have guaranteed most of our children few education, eradicated disease and fought pestilence. For every dream and idea we’ve ever had, we’ve accomplished something in its honor. Every time you step on an airplane, you experience that absolute magic that is the human mind in motion. Think about it – thousands of pounds of steel and aluminum – flying at speeds of hundreds of miles per hour, circling the globe. You can’t tell me that there isn’t magic in that.

And so I’m proposing, that even with all that Schadenfreude out there (that, no, we shouldn’t ignore, it can be fun), we should take time out of every day to look for hope in our lives. Let’s all perform acts of kindness, to strangers and our friends, with the hope that they pass it on. It’s easy to think of this as just a mere Pay It Forward, let’s all cry because Helen Hunt is in love with Kevin Spacey and the little kid will probably die, event – but it should be more than that. We can make it more than that. I promise you, yes, we can.

Thank you, Paul, for truly making my day. Keep the hope alive, you inspire me.