Follow Jimmy Fallon's example and try a little tenderness

Have you heard that Boko Haram (those folks in Northern Africa who have got kidnapping innocent girls and terrorizing the general populace down to a science) has pledged allegiance to ISIS (the cretins who have made public beheadings a near daily occurrence as well as hijacked an entire religion)?

You know what I say to that? Stop the world, I wanna get off. I mean, I expect either the horsemen of the apocalypse to ride by my window any second or to look out and see pigs flying. Its that bad.

I think its time we took a break from evil, dont you? Weve all had it up to our teeth with war and racially-motivated violence and so-called human beings doing things to each other that would have made Hitler and his gang blush.

Youve got people who are so paranoid that they are attacking one another. Parents of small (and not-so-small) children are being sued for the wildly reckless practice of allowing their kids to wait for it walk to school alone.

Heavens. I guess that means my parents would have been up to their eyeballs in lawsuits, considering they allowed me to walk to and from kindergarten by myself way back in the late Cretaceous. Police forces seem more likely to be on the defensive than to be admired. Entire countries endure cruelty and discrimination as a fact of life, countries with leaders who seem to operate with complete immunity while the rest of the world looks on, wondering what it will take to stop them.

Cute kitten videos

Why do you think people are so interested in cute kitten videos? They are desperate for some relief from the horrors they hear about every hour of every day. An internet story about a centenarian in Australia who knits sweaters for injured penguins? Its almost laughably sentimental, but it blows up on Facebook and Twitter because folks are sick of being bombarded with death and destruction on a daily basis.

Last summers ALS Ice Bucket Challenge (a movement which cynics branded ridiculously maudlin and/or pointless) was a huge hit, with hundreds of thousands of people dousing themselves with cold water in a feel-good campaign that seemed to last forever while raising pots of money for a good cause. Why? I think its because people need something positive in their lives to counteract the violence and utter disregard for humanity to which they witness every day.

Jimmy Fallon

Which brings me to the veritable Pied Piper of Positivity, Mr. Jimmy Fallon.

Fallon is the host of a late-night American talk show whose sole focus seems to be bringing delight and good vibes to the population at large. Now, its no surprise that Fallon is a funny guy. He is a comedian and a former Saturday Night Live cast member. The man has impeccable comic timing and a seemingly infinite supply of spontaneous yuks.

He breaks himself up on a regular basis, for pitys sake. What amazes me is how inherently gentle and good-natured his humour is, in a world where sarcasm and snarky wit have been the order of the day for as long as I can remember. He is unswervingly polite and kind to his guests, focusing on the positive, reaching out to others seemingly just to prove how similar we all are.

His global popularity is undeniable, as evidenced by his regular hashtags segment, where Fallon uses Twitter to post topics for his followers to comment on, such as Worst Vacation Ever or Dads Best Advice. Fallons tweets regularly become worldwide trending topics within half an hour of being posted.

He invites his celebrity guests to play homey games like Pictionary and charades, or challenges them to lip-syncing contests. Last fall, Fallon went head-to-head with the extremely elegant actress Glenn Close (she of Fatal Attraction fame) in an eating contest. (For the record, Close won, polishing off most of a blueberry pie no-handed.)

Ace Burpee

Its not just Fallon who attracts people starved for feel-good enthusiasm: Winnipeg has its very own proponent of positivity, Hot 103 radio host Ace Burpee. Burpee never met a cause he couldnt get behind or an opportunity to pay it forward which he couldnt take advantage of (in a good way).

Every morning you can hear Burpee and his crew expounding on the virtues of volunteering, the latest drive to raise money for a worthy cause or promoting this city and province as utterly fabulous. Excellent and awesome are two of his favourite words, and I never fail to feel more cheerful after listening to him. (For the record, I ran into him once in an elevator and he was just as nice in person as he is on air.)

What Im saying is that there is plenty of negativity to go around nowadays. Some days it is hard to believe that our world is heading for anything more than one big meltdown glacial, political, nuclear: take your pick. It is during times like this that we need to find the light in the darkness. We need to be reminded that there is plenty of good in this world, plenty of chances to do more, and plenty of reasons why we need not just to seek out the Jimmy Fallons and Ace Burpees of the world, but to get behind them in their push toward the light.

We should all try a little tenderness. It sure couldnt hurt.