Call to the Void

So, there’s this kid who made this video. He’d done a few YouTube videos, and he got his first “like.” And he was just so pumped because it meant there were people out there. That people actually saw what he was making and took the time to click that little thumbs-up button.

“I just can’t believe it,” he said. Couldn’t stop moving, that little gesture made him so excited. He said it sent him through the roof. And I just think of the innocence and the optimism and the hope and the gratitude of it all. This kid reaching into the void and being so happy to find even the slightest sign that the void acknowledged his presence.

In a way, it reminds me of prayer. The reaching out into the unknown with a child-like hope for some sign of response, feeling so grateful for any small thing. Letting that hope reach further, further … because who knows?

He asked for a big favor: For this video to get 3 to 5 likes. If he got one subscriber, he said that would get him totally stoked.Well, people found this kid’s video, and something about his sincere happiness at a single kind gesture seemed to strike a chord. People got together. They made a choice on how to reply.

Today, the video has 216,342 likes and almost two million views. More than 130,000 people have subscribed to his channel. He was so happy to have 45 Twitter followers. Now he has 45,000.

I feel overwhelmed. Realizing how much power for good people have. Seeing that we have the will to use that power. That so many of us are still fighting for the same things, clinging to the same hopes.

And choosing to prove that sometimes … when you reach out into the void … the void reaches back.