I really appreciate Josh Johnson. He’s a great standup comedian, a writer and correspondent for he Daily Show, and he’s just genuine and outgoing as well. (More on that in a bit.)

Before I stopped – or at least paused – Instagram, I caught a few of his standup clips on there. One in particular really hit home: he was talking about slavery, and said (and I quote) “that this thing – this horrific thing – that the people that it happened to turned it into some of the most beautiful things we have.” 

I was thinking of this quote while I was sitting in a blues bar last week. It’d been forever since I was somewhere that live blues was playing on the regular. (Anyone wanna start a blues band?) Being in that place, listening to the blues, made me think of what he said at the time, and made me even more grateful to be there.

So a little while ago I found myself completely unexpectedly at an actual Josh Johnson show.

He was brilliant, of course, but after the show, he spent his time in between sets greeting the audience individually and taking pictures. Crazy, right? I mean, performers often say things like “I appreciate each and every one of you for being here,” and he did too, but rarely do they prove it by greeting everyone in the audience of a sold-out show during their set break. Which just goes to show: yes, he is indeed a genuine and amazing person.

Thinking of what I had the chance to say to him, and what I didn’t get to say, made me realize that in this new life of mine, this bonus round – I want to do just what he said. I want to make beautiful things and I want people to appreciate each other more. It doesn’t have to be on a large scale – I don’t have to go as far as Josh does (although hey, that would be nice) – but I do want to make my time now more meaningful to others than my time had been. More truly helpful to others, yeah? Less self-serving.

Recent events have taught me a few things, but one of them is to make sure large goals have smaller, more manageable sub-tasks. So, okay, “being better to others” is a bit big. Let’s take a smaller step.

What if we all did just one extra good thing a day?

Maybe it could be something simple like letting someone in front of us in traffic, or giving up a place in line to someone, or maybe something bigger like giving a gift of something we’re good at (or maybe even not so good at). Maybe it’s something as simple as checking in on friends we haven’t talked to in a while.

Or maybe it’s something bigger, like greeting every one of the people in your sold out show, taking free pictures with every one of them, asking every one of their names, and listening to everything that each one has to say.

One step at a time. A twig can change the course of a river. 

I truly believe that making the world a better place – on any level – is what the human spirit is all about, man. And the human spirit is indomitable. And if enough of us try, and keep trying, and get back up again if we fail or get pushed back, then just maybe together we can turn the tide and really change the world, together.

Let’s find out.