Loss of Faith in Humanity and Power of Media to Lift Spirits

In today’s world it seems more and more people are losing their faith in humanity as a whole.  It is not difficult to understand why this has happened.  News channels constantly bombard with stories of crime, war, and disease.  The financial crisis that began in 2008 has touched almost every life in the United States and untold numbers of people around the world.  Many people have lost jobs, homes, and hope.  

Loss of faith in humanity is not a new phenomenon.  The great physicist Albert Einstein said in his era that “perfection of means and confusion of ends seems to characterize our age.”   One example of a loss of humanity people today are all too familiar with are those who witness an injustice and do nothing – except take a video of it with cell phone cameras to post online.  This, too, is not something limited to our age.  Einstein also commented on this issue, saying that “the world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing.”

Fortunately, television and movies can have a positive effect on a person’s faith in humanity as well.  Television series such as Touched by an Angel and Highway to Heaven helped depressed or troubled people and showed there is still goodness in human kind.  There are few people who have not at least heard of the movie It’s a Wonderful Life, where a kind-hearted man falls into despair but has his faith renewed.

Through the years, the written word has also had a powerful influence, and often times authors can have a profound effect on the opinion of the masses.  The author of Charlotte’s Web, was a strong supporter of a writer’s duty to uplift the human spirit.  In 1973, the author received a letter that spoke of the letter writer’s loss of faith in humanity.  The author’s response is a testament to the power of the written word to uplift:

         As long as there is one upright man, as long as there is one compassionate 

         woman, the contagion may spread and the scene is not desolate.  Hope is the thing 

         that has left us, in a bad time.

Now, more than ever, people need uplifting prose to remind them why humanity is not a lost cause. Lisa Boucher’s Jesus, Mo and Cheese Puffs is just such a manuscript.  Flo and Mo Brown, the main characters, are an elderly couple who have seen their share of adversity.  Their only son died as a teenager.  Flo has a deformed eye from a car accident.  Yet through all this, Flo has never lost her faith in Jesus or her love for Mo… and oh yeah, a love of cheese puffs.  Mo is a bit more jaded, but Flo has a way of making him see the best in most things.  When Flo wins on a scratch off lottery ticket, there are so many things they could do, but Mo has an idea.  He wants to take Flo to a TV doctor in California for plastic surgery on her eye, and the two set out from Indiana for an appointment in California.

But, as with real life, the couple is often sidetracked along the way.  In every place they stop, they find people in need – some financially, some spiritually – and Flo being who she is cannot help but help them.  Mo is wise enough to follow Flo’s lead, sometimes leading to new outlooks on life.  Every person Flo touches is uplifted and has at least a little faith in humanity restored thanks to her kindness.  In the end, Flo learns a great lesson about herself and how often the only limitations people have are those they put on themselves.  

Jesus, Mo and Cheese Puffs is available in Kindle edition on Amazon - click here