The media is too often flooded with stories of devastation and destruction. It has become a feat to find a single positive story to counteract the negative headlines. It’s 2021, and the news still has that same nauseating 2020 flare. Right now, any story that can renew your faith in humanity, even just a little bit, counts as good news in my book. Today’s story is courtesy of this USA Today article.

Brainerd, Minnesota – Customers pay it forward for three days straight at a Dairy Queen drive-thru. As you may know, we love good deeds on this column, and it seems as though this town is full of good samaritans.

The term “pay it forward” refers to paying for the car behind you at a drive-through or the customer behind you in line at a shop.

“They were encouraging the attitude when people were coming through and the energy was just really good to see,” the store manager said. “Since March, tons of things have changed, tons of things are going on, and it’s not just in the store. We are people. We have things going on outside… The energy was definitely uplifting. There was no negative energy going on.”

As this restaurant manager said, these times are chaotic. Since they haven’t gotten better yet, we should take victory in the small acts of kindness and take pride in how they can positively affect others. If anything, the past year has shown us that people can still help other people while social distancing. The forces at large prevent us from helping other people from within a six-foot proximity, but it is not impossible – the branch manager recalls that non-customers even called in to put money on a gift card. That way, if a car could not afford to pay it forward for the next customer, the chain could continue; the small acts of kindness could continue.