Kind World

Scott Widak had a smile for everyone and an open heart. When he became terminally ill, his nephew took to Reddit, asking the online community to send letters to his uncle with Down syndrome and listing some of his eclectic interests. Scott's story resonated around the world, with hundreds and hundreds of letters coming in, each recognizing something special about Scott that had resonated with the sender.

Karim Alagha worked for 25 years at a gas station in Cambridge. He was immensely loving and deeply empathetic; he asked people how they felt and truly listened to their answers. Over time, a community formed around Karim and the station. An invisible community that was not even aware of itself until Karim fell sick.

Reverend Nathan Detering is minister at the First Parish Unitarian Universalist Area Church in Sherborn, Massachusetts. Last holiday season, he tried an experiment with his congregation — “reverse offering,” where instead of members donating money to the church, they were given money instead.

A skydiving instructor in Texas, David Hartsock, was making his last jump for the day. His student was Shirley Dygert, a 54-year-old wife and grandmother who was jumping for the first time. When everything went wrong, Hartsock determined that there was no way they could both survive the fall, and there was only one way for either of them to survive.