Transcript of Episode 8 Season 2

Lamondre Pough: This is a six year old boy who heroically calms his little brother down with deep breathing exercises. And this is an article they ran in today. And it says: most parents are at a loss when it comes to stopping their child’s temper tantrum. But this six year old boy knew a trick to calm his little brother down.

And it’s the definition of brotherly love

Welcome to 3DVU, one conversation, three different perspectives. I’m LaMondre Pough.

David Pérez: I am David Pérez.

Richard Streitz: And I’m Richard Streitz. Thank you for joining us.

Lamondre Pough: Welcome to this edition of 3DVU. Today, we want to do something a little bit different. In a time where we’ve seen such unprecedented change happening and people are really uncertain right now. So every so often you just have to take a moment just to look at the positive, the good stuff that’s happening, because believe me, even though we don’t hear much about it, there’s a lot of good stuff going on right now.

And so today on this episode of 3DVU, what we want to do is pause. And just inject some good stuff into the atmosphere. And we’re going to do that by looking at a website called karuṇavirus, and karuṇā is a Sanskrit word for compassion, according to the website. And so that’s what we’re going to do today.

Richard, what do you think about this approach and the need for some good stuff?

Richard Streitz: We could all use good news. There’s no question about it. In, and certainly scouring the news of the past week, there’s just nothing tremendously positive that comes to light. And then not to say there’s not good things happening there are, but.

We wanted to get a fresh spin. We want it to step away from all the typical news cycle items that we hear about, everything that you’ve all heard about already. And see what’s the rest of the world, not the rest of the world, but the rest of the people doing that aren’t surrounded by or enveloped into the stories that everyone hears about all the time, politics and coronavirus and so forth. And this side popped up as one that sort of celebrates a lot of these smaller, but still significant, smaller.  maybe not ,smaller less marketed but still significant stories that are worth sharing.

And and this side is a prime example there are number of sites like this, but this site, caught our attention and yeah, I think this is a great idea.

Lamondre Pough: Absolutely. Absolutely. So I’m looking forward to this. So here’s some good stuff, David.

David Pérez: I’m going to start with the story of how an eight year old in Canada adressed her city’s food insecurity.

How an 8 year old did something about Guelph´s food insecurities, Victoria Boulding never thought her cookiegram initiative would blow up the way it did. The eight year old girl who just wanted to bake and sell some cookies ended up raising $1,456 for the food bank after people across the community jumped at the opportunity to support her. It Blew up, said, Victoria’s mother, Catherine. We didn’t really expect it to, I thought a few friends and family would support and we would, might get 100 bucks to donate to the food bank, but it exploded.

Catherine said her daughter, Victoria has always had a big heart. She would paint nails in the family and still, and sell stories to collect money in a piggy bank, dedicated to charity. When valentine’s day came approaching, she decided to bake cookies to raise money, something her mom, did as a girl scout when she was younger.

After looking through different charities in Guelph Victoria settled on the Guelph food bank, she said, I want to help people who don’t have money to have food for themselves. With the help of her mom, Victoria created prototypes, designs and packaging for the cookies. She also practiced the sales pitch, which was recorded by Catherine and posted to her Facebook page.

Katherine said after posting it on Facebook while the family was enjoying their family movie night, the order forms were filling up within minutes.

Richard Streitz: Wow.

David Pérez: This is incredible guys. This just shows you that people are willing to help. They just need to find somewhere to do it. Someone who’s doing it , with a good heart and they’re willing to help and just do their part.

Richard Streitz: What I love about the story is that it epitomizes, thousands of stories like this that aren’t necessarily written down or published anywhere, but it speaks to the ultimate goodness that all people exhibit. We all inherently are good and kind people to each other. What I really love about the story is that it doesn’t mention anything about partisanship.

There’s no partition or political party spin on this. It’s just a need, people reaching out and good people doing good things and helping. And that is really fundamentally who we all are. I think sometimes we let news cycles infiltrate and dictate who we become and give us character roles that we somehow must fit into.

And instead of just doing the right thing, being good and kind to people helping people in need. And this is a great story that just speaks to that, that, this is what we should be celebrating.

Lamondre Pough: Absolutely. Absolutely. The thing that I love about this is a young person who decided that I can do something about a big issue.

And so often we see ourselves as small. We see ourselves as not being able to handle the big issues of life, but I believe that if we just focus on the things that we can do in our circle of the world, we can certainly then make momentum. We can make some momentum happen and change some of the bigger things.

That happens in life. So great pick, David, Great, pick on that one.

Richard Streitz: Yeah. You know it, you brought up something about this was a young individual and and I know I’ve said this before, but it, again, it illustrates what happens when you’re not burdened with the baggage of past generations of an older generation and attitudes toward that.

One of the reasons why the youth are able to move on something like this is because they know the technology right there. It’s second nature to them. They know the power of that, and they’re not hindered or impeded by any of this cultural baggage that older individuals have and carry with them.

And they just act on it. They just do it. They don’t worry about any of the other stuff. There’s nothing that’s falsely guiding them. They’re doing just what feels right and what feels good. And that’s, there’s a purity to that.

Lamondre Pough: Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely love that. Absolutely love that.

All right. So in this one, I’m going to just give a synopsis of it. I’m going to read it, but I’m going to give somewhat of a synopsis cause it’s a long article. All right. So my story involves another young person.

This is a six year old boy who heroically calms his little brother down with deep breathing exercises. And this is an article they ran in today. And it says: most parents are at a loss when it comes to stopping their child’s temper tantrum. But this six year old boy knew a trick to calm his little brother down.

And it’s the definition of brotherly love. Ashley West 30 of Los Angeles, California saw her middle son, Noah using a breathing technique on his little brother, Cory who’s four years old. He was on the verge of a meltdown and quickly decided to film the special moment, the clip of her little guy, helping his brother calm down quickly, went viral on Twitter last Sunday and was then shared across the, other social media platforms.

It even became a hand, hold its morning boost on to Tuesday. Okay, and this is a quote, okay. ‘I really was not expecting this video to blow up the way it did’ West posted on Instagram on Tuesday. ‘If you know me, then you know, the kids and I are always meditating and practicing controlling our breathing and managing our emotions’  coping during COVID has been stressful as a stay at home parent and graduate student said, West, who is working towards a master’s in social work at USC. I do yoga and meditate as a form of relief and relief, as well as exercise.

The kids will sometimes join me. But they definitely watch me all the time. In the short video, Corey is on the verge of a tantrum due to the fact that his Nintendo is not charged Noah heads off the situation by engaging his little brother and demonstrating the breathing, inhaling through his nose and exhaling through his mouth. ‘Breathe’, he says, gaining Cory’s undivided attention. When the little guy comes down, he gives him a Pat on the shoulder. ‘See, it helps you calm down’, he says. Now what’s amazing about this theory is so often we need a Noah. We need somebody to say, wait a minute, inhale, exhale, breathe. And what it really shows is that we take responsibility for each other.

Then we can take responsibility for each other’s wellbeing. And even though it might not be that I am up in arms because something is not working out for you, but because I see you in distress, I extend a hand and I reach out to help you. So, amazing video, amazing story, and great for those little guys.

Great for those little guys and good on the mother for even allowing them to be a part of that.

David Pérez: Yeah, it’s incredible to see that because as you’re saying, LaMondre a lot of us we don’t breathe as much as we should. We don’t take the time to meditate as those kids are learning at a very early age to do it.

And we should, we really should take time to contemplate life as it is, and breathe as much as we can, because life can be very intense. We know that. We’re living in a pandemic.

Lamondre Pough: Absolutely.

David Pérez: Every single one of us knows how hard it can get. I’ve recently experienced my my, what I think was because I wasn’t diagnosed or anything.

I just felt all the symptoms, my first panic attack. And ..

Lamondre Pough: Really?

David Pérez: Yeah. It was horrible. I didn’t know what was going on until I sat down and started going through my mind and everything that I’ve read and heard. And I figured, okay, this is a panic attack. And that helped me get it under control a little bit, but what I needed at that exact moment in time was someone to tell me to breathe.

So I would have loved to have that in my life.

Lamondre Pough: Yeah. You know what, man, I’ll tell you experiencing panic attacks, especially for the first time can be really off-putting. I’m extremely claustrophobic and because of my disability it’s difficult for me to move things in terms of if I’m laying in bed and the cover falls over my face, I physically can’t move it. And I remember it was one night where the comforter that I was laying under, it fell across my face. Now I live by myself. So literally my heart started racing. I started breathing heavy and it was just like, I just like game over for me that if something didn’t happen soon, game is over for me.

But what helped me was what you just said. I was like, okay, wait a minute. Breath, just breathe. And I was able to do that long enough for me to call someone. At one 30 in the morning, might I add, to come and pull the cover off of my face so that I could actually have a good night so that those breathing techniques, techniques are so very vital, particularly if you’re prone to panic attacks or things of that nature.

Richard Streitz: Yeah. Panic attacks are so very real. I know. I had an older sibling who actually thought he was having a heart attack and the paramedics came and took him to the hospital. And it was that severe where his chest, his chest had tightened up and, all of the things that that, that mimic the symptoms of of a, of a heart attack.

And that’s, it’s. It certainly is a very real thing. And honestly, if you’re convinced of that, your brain, sometimes can’t tell the difference between what’s perceived versus what’s real. And it can go in this mode where your body’s reacting to something that you truly have convinced yourself that you are having a heart attack.

And so it can actually exasperate itself. The brain is amazing how it can do that. And yeah. It’s, the idea of having someone there to, going back to the story about being able to breathe and all that’s, it’s just, it’s so important and key.

Lamondre Pough: Absolutely.

Absolutely.

Richard Streitz: All right. Originally being from LA, I have a story here that comes out of LA Los Angeles.

Lamondre Pough: Okay.

Richard Streitz:  Los Angeles just opened a tiny home village. To house the homeless. I think it’s a little near and dear to my heart because I actually did volunteer work on skid row the famous large homeless area down in In the downtown area of Los Angeles.

And and there is a tremendous amount of homeless individuals. It’s something that and not only just in, in the Southern California area because of the climate but in other areas around the country as well it’s something that not enough attention is really truly given to.

And it’s interesting about the whole subculture of that as well but this is certainly something that’s much needed. So let’s get into the story here. A colorful village of 40 tiny homes opened up in Los Angeles earlier this month, while each 64 square foot unit can only hold one or two people, the project as a whole is a huge step forward.

When it comes to solving one of the city’s biggest crisises homelessness. The Chandler Boulevard, bridge home village, as it is officially named, was designed and built in just 13 weeks by Lehrer Architects and the city’s Bureau of engineering, according to the press release. Located in North Hollywood, it is Los Angeles latest effort in providing shelters to its homeless population.

It is managed by the Hope of the Valley Rescue Mission and is currently filled to capacity since it’s February 2nd opening. Each tiny home has two beds, heat, air conditioning windows, and a small desk, electrical outlets and a front door. There are also larger model units on site where residents can find collective dining and gathering spaces pet play areas, showers, restrooms, laundry services, some storage options. Case management, housing navigation, mental health, job training, and placement services will also be provided.

What’s particularly unique about this village is it takes one of the, of this tiny home trend, as well as a striking color palette, the city tapped Washington-based builder Pallet Shelter to build the shelters. The company specializes in creating a durable, portable and affordable shelter. For those without a home. It has helped set up a number of similar models communities like this in California, as well as in a few other States across the country.

This was the city’s first time working with palate. All, as, as for the colors, Lehrer Architects carefully selected shades of red, white, blue, yellow, and orange. In projects like these designs matters to uplift rresidents and to respectfully complete and enhance the neighborhood. The firm noted in a press release shelters of the same color were grouped together to create a coherent sense of village.

Meanwhile, the colors used on the ground aim to give each shelter individuality. The Hope of the Valley Rescue Mission revealed that it will be opening a larger, tiny home unit in Alexandra park in Los Angeles this April. This new community will have 103 homes and 200 beds. What’s beautiful about that is, it’s, it’s good news. That again, you don’t necessarily hear about and that, that, satisfies a tremendous need. What’s interesting about the homeless community. A lot of people don’t understand is that for some, it’s not always just about people who, who want to get a job or need to get a job or are lazy or don’t want a job.

For some it’s actually a lifestyle that, that they get there because of some dramatic event that’s happened in their life. Some of it, some individuals may have psychological issues and that compounds sort of them getting pushed out and out of society or being from, being allowed to enter into the system which can be horrible and complex. And these marginalized individuals are really left nowhere to go. And then, so this type of facility can generate a tremendous amount of hope and as well as services necessary to allow them the little bit of leeway to get on their feet and be able to be productive individuals for society again.

Lamondre Pough: Yeah. You know, what is really interesting about this homeless situation is that you’re right. The face of homelessness has changed. Very much like the things you described previously, some people that are homeless are people with jobs. The people who go to work every day. It just so happens that the job does not meet their need in terms of where they’re, but they’re there, they’re trying to be productive.

They’re trying to add. And what it says to me, it demonstrates how quickly and how easily that could be any of us. It used to be, Oh, that’s their problem over there. The truth is many people are just a couple of paychecks away from that same reality being theirs. In fact years ago, I actually wrote a poem about it.

It was called Mr no face. And that’s what the poem was about. And if you all will indulge me for a second, I’ll recite it. And the poem goes like this. It says, ‘Who am I? The man with no face, an outcast, the subhuman race, the invisible man that everyone sees, you acknowledge I exist, but refuse to believe that a man could lose face in no fault of his own. You say he must have done something. For God, divinity took away his home. The only thought you give is one of sinful circumstance, never once considering that the essence of life is time and chance. So place that space, that would be my face in a place where life shines true. Because when you open your eyes, you might be surprised the man that I am is you.

That’s Mr. No face. And that was my, my I wrote that in response to, to realizing the face of homelessness has changed and how really it could be any of us at any time. If the circumstances precipitate.

David Pérez: And that’s a beautiful poem LaMondre.

Richard Streitz: It is, it’s a great poem.

Lamondre Pough: Thank you.

Richard Streitz: We’ve got to put that. We got to put that out in print.

David Pérez: Yeah. That’s a great choice, Richard. It’s definitely something worth noting when people are doing everything they can to help people in need, because we do take for granted our. Our home, our shelter, the place where we have, because we most of us always have had it. So not having it is something so, that we find alien that we cannot relate, but if you try it, try really try to put yourself in those in in, in those shoes, you’ll realize that there’s probably nothing worse than not having where to go, where to sleep the security of your house, security of your bed, the comfort of your home. So yeah, definitely something beautiful being done or out there.

Lamondre Pough: Yeah. What’s also amazing about the whole tiny home thing. This tiny home stuff is popping up all over the place. You see it. I just read an article this past weekend of of tiny homes popping up in South Carolina, where I live. And, usually your people want the, the large sprawling, big Mansions that, that kind of thing.

But people are making it happen in a, a standalone structure, less than 700 square feet. They’re making it happen, man. And it’s really refreshing. It’s really refreshing to see how people are doing more with less. Now, I’m not saying that everybody’s got to go out and get a tiny home. My, my thing is, Hey, if that makes me happy, knock yourself out, but it is impressive.

And it does indeed lessen the footprint in terms of impact when people have downsized and that’s a part of sustainability being able to do more with less and so great example of that and and helping to solve a serious problem. Great story.

Richard Streitz: Yeah. Yep.

David Pérez: Yeah. I’m going to, I’m going to bring up another story that clicked with me.

And this one clicked with me because it’s something that I’ve seen not only happened there where the story happens, but also all around the world. So the title is A man makes an app to buy from local stores online. I love the culture of the city. I love the character of the city, I love the community.

Jonathan Sandals describes the city of Seattle Washington. After moving there from Montreal in 2019, he fell in love with the city’s small businesses and conversations with owners made him realize their online sales, were dismal. Web searches for  small mom and pop shops were no match against big online retailers.

It’s important to root for David and not Goliath. He pointed out. I think we’re all better for that. In that spirit, he used his technology skills to create a browser extension that aggregates products sold in small stores, making them searchable in one place for free. Small businesses don’t pay for the service.

And neither do users. I’m not making money off this Sandals said laughing. It’s a passion project. It’s my love letter to Seattle.

And it’s so many mom and pop shops simply don’t have the skills or the knowledge to be out there online. And with the pendemic it’s been so important to be out there online that many have gone broke djust because they didn’t have an option. And I’ve seen the pop here in Costa Rica and Columbia people created marketplaces where there were none.

So people could actually buy from local shops, support local entrepreneurs. And I know it’s cliche, but entrepreneurs are the backbone of society they really create jobs, create progress, create everything. And. And we need to support them as much as we can, whatever they’re doing. It’s probably something that’s going to end up circling back into the economy and making the world a better place.

So if you can buy bread from a big corporation or buy bread from your local bakery, let’s go to the local bakery. Let’s try and get it from local bakery as much as we can.

Lamondre Pough: I love that. I love using technology to build and grow small businesses because what’s interesting, particularly the way that things are now, you’ve got several superpowers in terms of commerce and in terms of just retail buying, and nothing wrong with that, nothing wrong with that at all.

However, small businesses in many instances are left out of the loop, particularly when you put that technology piece on it, local small businesses. And so having an app that will, put together these small businesses and find the items that you are looking for locally, that’s amazing.

That’s amazing. It is. It is one for the little guy. It is one for those who so often seem to be left behind because they don’t have the billions, they don’t have the infrastructure. They don’t have all of those things that are benefits to large corporations that can do that. And let’s face it, this app, certainly isn’t going to hurt the behemoths.

It’s not going to, touch them at all. And it won’t even be a blip on their radar screen. However, this could literally mean the difference between shutting the doors or the survival of a small business. So kudos to innovation in that and moving that forward. That’s fantastic.

Richard Streitz: Yeah.

Absolutely. Absolutely. Supporting small businesses is so critically important, especially during this time. And David you already said it, but I think it’s worth repeating that, everyone should make it a point to go out and support the small businesses, the restaurants, the shops that, that are out there because they are the real collateral damage of of so and so many peoples That that rely on their, on their businesses that they’ve created.

And for many of them, they, these are businesses they created for 20 years or so. And they’re now through no fault of their own having to close up or sell or, whatever it is. And buy local and support your local businesses is so important.

Lamondre Pough: Yeah. That’s amazing

that’s amazing. So here’s my last story. I wanted to do something that dealt with the environment and and this was a story that I found. This is an article that ran in the New York times in February. And the name of it is The city where cars are not welcomed. All right. And it’s a story out of Germany.

So forgive me if I butcher the pronunciation of some names here. Eckart Wurzner is a mayor on a mission to make his city climate neutral by 2030. Under his leadership, the city of Heidelberg is buying a fleet of hydrogen powered buses, building a network of bicycle super highways to the suburbs and designing neighborhoods to discourage all vehicles and encourage walking.

The city had an opportunity starting in 2009 to redevelop an area called the Bahnstadt. Modern apartment buildings in the development are so well insulated. They require almost no energy to heat. Cars are not banned in the Bahnstadt, but there is almost no traffic virtually everything that residents need, including jobs is available in the community.

The idea is to get back to the classic early city where living and working are closely inter intertwined,  said Ralf Bermich head of the city’s office of environmental protection. So think about it. We often talk about the SDGs and we talk about, we talk about things that that we want to accomplish by 2030, which, the SDGs, the design of it is that these things, these 17 goals will be accomplished by 2030. This is someone who’s really taking a stand. And doing that. Who’s saying that, we cannot just think that it’s going to happen, but we’re going to put some things in place to make it happen.

So buying the fleet of buses and making certain that it’s almost a village concept where everything you need resides right there in that village. That’s amazing. That’s taking a real step right there. What do you guys think?

Richard Streitz: Yeah. I agree. I think, again, it speaks to the ingenuity of the human spirit in going through what we’re all going through.

So yeah, I think that I think it’s a great story and a great example of that.

Lamondre Pough: Yeah. You know, not only..

David Pérez: I also, sorry about that. Go ahead, LaMondre.

Lamondre Pough: No, I was gonna say, not only does it speak to the engineer, but can you imagine the courage that it took as the elected official to say, you know what, no more gas powered cards here.

Now that takes real courage to stand up and say.

Richard Streitz: Yep. Yeah.

David Pérez: What I like a lot is that the idea of going back to, to having everything within reach and how they emphasize the fact that jobs are there because people don’t have to travel. But that also means people are servicing their neighbors. So they are building relationships with everyone they meet.

And that of course builds compassion, which is what we started talking about this, this episode.

Lamondre Pough: Absolutely.

David Pérez: Because if the people that you’re dealing with, their life, their [inaudible] you know what they need, that you can help them.

And I believe that builds a lot of Goodwill in people. And I find that’s beautiful. Yeah.

Richard Streitz: It really solidifies the idea and concept of a village, where everyone knows and works and plays together with, with everyone. And certainly the older, traditional classic and, going back ancient history the idea where the shops and the living quarters and everything was all right, right on top of each other, many of the proprietors of shops lived above their stores.

And so as a result the breaker, the butcher, every, all the Shoemaker, everyone. All lived in the same area. They were all neighbors with each other. They all knew each other’s issues and, and there’s good and bad, but that but it’s mostly good because it builds unity.

It builds strong sense of community. And that’s something that gets lost as we started sprawling out cities and spreading them out where we decided that suburb was going to be in one area and business is going to be in another area and you have to drive commute and it disconnects community that, that doesn’t really help build community very much.

It also, I love the idea of going back to that sort of model.

Lamondre Pough: It’s interesting. One of the things that really resonated with the story with me was, I’m looking for a, I’m moving soon and I’m looking for another place to live and what was so chiefly important over the accessibility of the place and all that kind of stuff was the neighborhood.

And, the thing that was important to me was that I needed what I called a walkable neighborhood. I needed to where the grocery store was in a walkable distance where entertainment was in a walkable distance where shopping and all of those things were in walkable distances. And that’s because, I use a wheelchair.

Yes, I have a vehicle, but I have to find a driver and all of those kinds of things for it. So for me to really look at a neighborhood as viable for me, a part of it is that everything has to be in walking distance and it has to be where it’s easy to walk and what I mean by that it needs to be fully  accessible.

I need curb cuts, I need wide walkways. I need all of those things. And I found a community that has that, and this is, this is a major piece of it. So just like we talked about before in an article that I co-wrote with a colleague of mine, about how incorporating accessibility and inclusion of people with disabilities was vital to fulfilling the SDG that talks about That talks about reducing our carbon footprint and helping be environment.

And so all of this is really playing in to it and it’s beautiful to see that other communities are doing the same thing. So this is great. Absolutely love this story. Absolutely love the story. Richard?

Richard Streitz: Oh yeah. Let’s see. I have a nice story. Baltimore chef drove six hours to cook a dying customer her favorite dish. Maryland resident, Brendan Jones, 37 knew it would be a long shot, but he had to try. His mother-in-law was in the final stages of lung cancer and had stopped treatment, had fallen in love with a Tempura broccoli dish from Ekiben in Baltimore. She’d emailed one of the owners, Steve Chu requesting the recipe.

Jones intended to make the recipe for her and her home in her, at her home. In Vermont that weekend. Chu’s response was more than Jones ever expected. The chef who specializes in Asian fusion cuisine offered to meet Jones and his wife, Rina in Vermont to make it fresh. I emailed back saying. You don’t know that this is Vermont we’re talking about, right?

Joan’s told the Washington post it’s a six-hour drive, but Chu responded: no problem. You tell us the date, time and location, and we’ll be there. For as long as Jones mother-in-law had been visiting Baltimore over the years, she has made it a priority to go to Ekiben in Fells Point where she ordered the same dish tempura broccoli topped with fresh herbs, red onions, and rice vinegar.

She had always told us when I’m on my death bed. I wanted to have that broccoli, Reena Jones 38 told the post. In fact, when I was packing on Friday to drive up to Vermont, I called my mom to see if she wanted us to bring anything special. And she jokingly said tempura broccoli. That’s Saturday, Chu, Ekiben co-owner Ephrem Abebe, and their colleague, Joe Añonuevo loaded up their pickup and drove the six hours to Vermont. The next day, the chef set up a makeshift kitchen in the bed of their truck at Rina’s mom’s homes, working against freezing temperatures to get their fryer to the cooking, correct cooking temperature.

When the Tempura broccoli alongside tofu nuggets with spicy peanut sauce and roasted garlic was ready. The team boxed up the food and rang the doorbell. Rina’s mom couldn’t believe her eyes or nose. My mom kept saying, I don’t understand. You drove all the way up there. To cook for me, Rina shared, she was so happy and touched to have the broccoli.

She couldn’t believe it. Chu also recognized the beloved 72 year old customer. We see a lot of people in the restaurant, but she’s always stood out, Chu said. She loves the food and always made sure to tell us she’s an amazing sweet lady. Rina told the Baltimore sun that her mom had struggled to eat because of sores in her mouth, from the cancer, but managed to devour the entire meal.

My mom cried later about the generosity. And so did I, Rina Jones says they made so much food, that she had it again the next day for lunch. It’s something we’ll never forget. And I’ll carry that positive memory with me always. When Brandon shared the experience on Facebook, it immediately grabbed the attention of Baltimore city council member, Zeke Cohen.

We heard a lot about challenges of restaurants in Baltimore yet, despite the pandemic, despite the crime, some are still surviving. I’ll always point to Ekiben as a business that always models respect for community and treats people with love. Plus their food is amazing. Again circling back to The story of just compassion and caring and people doing the right thing.

Doing good for good people. That’s really what what we’re all about.

Lamondre Pough: That’s a great one.

David Pérez: That’s what life should be about. Nothing more, like here’s a quote from Maya Angelou that says, if you find it in your heart to care for somebody else, you will have succeeded. And we really should practice that more as societies.

Lamondre Pough: Absolutely.

David Pérez: Compassion, caring for some, for someone else is, is so needed. And the good thing is that it is happening out there. Like this story proves. That people are willing to go out of their way to fulfill dying wishes and that’s, it’s amazing. And we just need to tell this story as loud as we can, because people need to know that we need more of this. The world needs more of this.

Lamondre Pough: Yeah. We need more of this.

Richard Streitz: We need to hear more.

Lamondre Pough: Absolutely. Absolutely. We need to hear it more. We need more of this and we need to recognize that it’s up to us to do it. It’s up to us to be the ones to do that. It’s not about waiting for someone else. Someone else can encourage you.

Someone else can inspire you, but it’s ultimately up to you to make the differences that you can make. And I know that we are. I know that we will. I know that there are so much more good. There’s so much more kindness to show. There is so much more positivity to generate. There is so much more light to shine and all we have to do is shine.

And so every, e very story that you heard in this episode we’ll link it so that you can have access to the full stories. But even as you go about your day, think about these things. Think about what it is that you can do. To make the world a better place to continue those acts of kindness, to, to help working your corner of the world to make a difference.

Because again, it’s up to you and I can’t say it any better than David and Richard, along with Maya Angelou has said it. So we certainly do appreciate you listening to this edition of  3DVU. And let’s go out there and make the world a better place. God bless you. And thank you for listening.

Thanks for joining us this week on 3DVU, make sure to visit our website Ruhglobal.com/3DVU. That’s RUHglobal.com/3DVU. Or you can subscribe to the show wherever you listen to podcasts or join our YouTube channel so you will never miss a show. While you’re at it, if you find value in the show, we appreciate it if you would leave a like or comment or simply tell a friend about the show, that would really help us a lot too. If you would like to join our conversations, you can join our Facebook community 3DVU, three perspectives, one conversation. .