I've found plenty of reasons to be depressed about the general state of affairs of life on planet earth lately. I won't bother you with the details...let's just say that the hoopla over Britney's comeback performance at last week's MTV awards didn't help. Every day seems to bring more ridiculous stories of a member of the human race engaging in some absolutely inane behavior. Not even the sports page in my Sunday paper offers me a respite from the insanity.

Can I get a witness?

But this isn't a post about the collective stupidity of our species. No, this is a post about why- despite evidence to the contrary- there remain some good reasons to grin. Here are people, stories, and art that allow me to hope. The following are probably not going to show up in CNN's Most Popular Stories; which at this moment contain these headlines: Baggy Pants Crackdown Goes National, Man Dies After 3-Day Gaming Binge, and the earth-shattering Older Women and Younger Men, Can it Work?

Lord help us all.

Reason to grin #1: Bono eulogizes Luciano Pavarotti. From the U2 blog ,

We wrote Miss Sarajevo for him. He had worked on the humanitarian crisis that was the war in Bosnia. We traveled together on a UN air force flight to Mostar... all of us earnest in hard hats, just about strapped into this industrial aircraft with the big man handing out parmigiano from Reggio Emilia, “the best cheese in the world" he kept saying… deadpan… to make us laugh.

I spoke to him last week... the voice that was louder than any rock band was a whisper. Still he communicated his love. Full of love.

Reason to grin #2: The Junky Car Club. Seriously. A club for those of us who drive cars that are, uh, junky. But this isn't just a club of for crappy car owners. There's something else here.

The Junky Car Club was established in the spring of 2006 when the president of our club Mike, decided to sell his fully loaded Infiniti G35 sports car to drive a junky 1993 Toyota Camry. In an act of rebellion against consumerism and the desire to give more to worthy causes, Mike began to enlist his friends and associates to join him in this experiment of driving with less and giving more. The Junky Car Club currently has members from the US, Australia, Singapore, England, and New Zealand.

I'm not sure if this makes my 98 Corolla with the peeling bumper cool. But I guess it doesn't matter.

Reason to grin #3: The Amish. OK, I'm not trying to generalize here, but there is something amazing going on in Lancaster County. Apparently $4.3 million has been donated to the Amish community in Pennsylvania who lost 5 students in the school shooting last year. I'm not sure where all the money is going, but MSNBC reports that some of it is going to support the widow of the gunman who killed the students. This comes after the community already offered a public forgiveness to the gunman and his family. In a climate of retaliation what do we do with a story like this? I'm not sure... but I did find myself shaking my head and grinning as I read this story. Perhaps the best stories end with forgiveness rather than vengeance.

OK- that helped. I'm feeling better about things, about people. Hope you are too. But just in case you're not, I offer one final attempt.

Reason to grin #4: Meat Hair. This one should probably be filed under The Absurd , but I just couldn't resist.

All for now.

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