A Good News Story

 I suspect I’m not alone in searching for a more positive take on life in the daily stories that pour forth from the media.  For even in the bleakest and most anxious of times, perhaps even especially at such moments, hearing  good news stories helps re-balance life and save it from desperation.

Well, I discovered one this week.  Although it didn’t headline on the BBC news website (in newspaper speak we might have said it appeared below the fold) it was still posted in fourth place that day!

It concerned Marc Gauthier, 63 years of age and from Bordeaux.  As someone with Parkinson’s he knows what it means to have mobility issues, frequently shuffling and even freezing.  For Marc getting into a car or a lift is fraught with difficulties as is general walking.

 I simply can’t fully appreciate the thrill he is currently feeling since his life has been utterly transformed by a team of medical specialists who have given him epidural spinal implants.  These have stimulated nerves, which in turn, can now send messages and signals to make muscles move. 

 Marc can now walk unaided and more smoothly, he’s not even afraid of the stairs and every Sunday does a four miles circuit around a lake.  Just a few years ago we might have described all of this as simply a dream, yet through the wonders and miracles of modern science it’s become a lived reality for Marc.

 He is so happy, and so was I as I read it.  There are indeed times when such advances and achievements seem inspirational and examples of us finding and living out our better selves.

I love the words of Paul in Philippians 4 when he writes:

Whatever things are true, noble, just and pure.
Whatever things are lovely and of good repute.
If there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy,
Think on these things.

Marc’s story, and the work of all those scientists and medics who helped it come to pass, are surely wonderful examples of that which is truly praiseworthy and it is indeed good to think on these things.