Rare moments help us get past worry to a few smiles

In a terrible time, which most everyone is experiencing these days thanks to a worldwide financial meltdown, you have to look for the small rays of sunshine.

So I point to a couple of examples that I witnessed in the past few weeks.

First was a personal encounter that really lifted me in a time of despair.

After experiencing some gastric difficulties, I was spending much of my time in doctor's offices.

With much still unresolved, I was sitting at a lab waiting for yet another needle to be jammed in my arm to extract a blood sample.

A woman walked in to drop something off, then turned before she left and asked if I was Ken Brodnax.

Then she proceeded to tell the story of how, many years ago, she was working a pizza restaurant in San Angelo. She had been going to college there and didn't really know that many people.

But she developed a really great friendship with a regular customer who happened to be my dad.

She related how he would, for several years, come in and order pizzas to take home and then sit and drink a beer while talking and joking with her. She laughed and recalled how he'd always ask at one point how the pizzas were coming along and that was her cue to ask if he wanted another beer.

Anyway, I realized early in the conversation who she was and mentioned that he had told me about her on several occasions.

She finished the conversation by saying that she really loved that friendship they forged. I told her that he was joking up until the time he died. She didn't doubt that.

Well, even though I didn't feel any better physically, that woman really picked up my spirits and made me remember how upbeat my dad always tried to be. It also made me feel good that he'd had such a lasting effect on someone who still remembered him after all these years.

Now we fast-forward a few weeks to the afternoon of the big Permian vs. Odessa High football game.

It's been a hectic week and most everyone is exhausted.

A man walks into the newsroom and says he has a couple of tickets for the game. He thought somebody at the newspaper might know someone who needed tickets.

We think he's trying to sell them. But no, the man says they're his parents' tickets and he just wants to give them away to someone who will use them. They're on the 40-yard-line on the Permian side.

So I tell him I know someone who could use them. It's the mother of a player who had to settle for standing room tickets. But her mother, the grandmother of the player, just wasn't up to standing for the whole game. They would welcome the seats. He handed them over with a smile and seemed pleased to help the recipients. They really enjoyed the game from that vantage point.

Again, I felt better about humankind. We usually see the angry, ugly side of people in newspaperland. His extra effort to give away those tickets made my spirits soar again.

We all get a little down in the mouth when we dwell on things like politics, money and health.

But it's nice to know that something as simple as a smile or laugh or an act of kindness from a complete stranger can make all the aggravations vanish for a few minutes. It gives us something we can't buy or beg - just a little personal dose of hope and sunshine.