By Jack Cumming
Do you need a moment of good cheer? Do you crave inspiration? Mainstream television today is filled with so much violence, negativity, divisive news, and otherwise insipid content that my wife and I now stream most of our viewing. We yearn for something positive and uplifting and, today, much to our surprise, we found it. We may be the last to know about this secret source, but it fills such a need that we want to share it with you, just in case.
Creative Joy
Our discovery is the Foundation for a Better Life. It’s a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization with a clear purpose. That purpose is to promote positive values and encourage its audience to Pass Them On. We’ll give you the website link below after we share a bit more about this remarkable contribution to a positive America and a positive World. Heaven knows we need that positive uplift in senior living.
The Foundation communicates “these values through inspiring messages in movie theatres, on television, billboards, radio, and the internet.” It’s an amalgam of writers, art directors, and marketing professionals working creatively with artists and broadcast outlets to provide spot “commercials” with uplift. Since these “commercials” aren’t selling anything but joy, they’re broadcast as “public service announcements.” Like TV ads, these are short and display the full creative power of the advertising community to give us emotional messages that draw us together.
Our SLF Family
For senior living, the message is that we are all one human family regardless of age or capability. Those who provide care or services are one with those who receive care and are served. Unique to our American culture is that today’s waiter or waitress is tomorrow’s guest in a restaurant. We honor those who wait on us by receiving their graciousness in the giving spirit with which they serve. Tomorrow, when they are out to dinner themselves with those they love and enjoy, it’s their turn to be on the receiving end of service.
Some cultures consign permanent class status by occupation, often through generations. America remains the land of opportunity where we value all people for who they are, not for how they earn their living or where they came from. That mutuality of purpose lies at the center of senior living. Those who once served us in infancy and beyond, those who mentored us in youth, now receive services from us. We are all one family sharing this period in history on our planet together. That’s the positive message that we find in the lives of so many who work in senior living.
Giving Back
The Foundation for a Better Life is unique in not accepting money contributions from the public and by operating with an extraordinarily small staff. The Ad Council is similar but better known and more visible. It originated in the sense of community during World War II, which brought us together for a common purpose. That unity of a prior generation and prior era is only latent beneath the visible surface in the persistent wrangling that now darkens the daily news cycle. Still, the advertising and creative industries are contributing their talents to call us as a world, as a nation, as an enterprise, to our better selves. So, take a moment to experience joy.
Click here for the latest uplifting video from the Foundation for Better Living. And, click here for a story of caregiving from the Ad Council. For the full catalog of uplifting materials for a better life, click here. You won’t be disappointed.
