Making a difference by time travel

no recording today, I'm sick and it's crummy

Morning darklings,

The hubs and I are watching Unsolved Mysteries season 2 right now. It's a surreal thing, watching a show with updates upon updates.

If you aren't familiar, each episode has one or more stories of events that have loose ends—cold murder cases, religious experiences, long lost siblings, kind soldiers with no names during WWII. Some are infuriating, others devastating. There are even a few heartwarming ones that leave me believing in goodness again.

After they share the stories, they may have an update about the people reconnecting, the killer being found, the Vatican declaring the experience not a miracle. There may be a second update about how long the person has been sentenced to, how the family is doing years later. It's wild, like we're time travelers.

It's also been a study in our justice system. Which crimes get light sentences in what state, which determines life vs death penalties, what "life" can actually mean. I knew some of it, definitely not all.

The amount of people who watched this show, who called in and said they saw the baddies, know the good ones, may have seen something, may have known something, wanted to help is... astonishing.

How were there so many good citizens during the 80s, 90s, and early oughts, while there was still so much darkness in the world still baffles.

Today, we don't watch TV at the same time as we used to. There is no 7pm sitcom on CBS or 8pm show on ABC to glue us to our couches. The next time we see people, we still have oodles to talk about, but TV may not be one of them. After all, I haven't started the latest season of Euphoria, and you may have finished it. So Unsolved Mysteries wouldn't hit the same. If anything, it would give the criminals more time to escape.

I saw that there was a reboot that started in 2020 and went until 2024. I look forward to seeing what that's like. But there's no doubt in my mind about it being less effective than the original.

Is that because we all watched TV at the same time? Did people step up simple out of convenience? Or because they knew the conversations in the morning at work would veer towards the episode?

Or were people just more observant and quietly kinder?

I don't want to believe that.

I know that thinking the beforetimes was better is romanticizing decades—lifetimes—filled with the pain and problems that lead to much of the show's content. Watching Unsolved Mysteries live just gave the quietly kind and observant people an opportunity to help, to have a voice, to make a difference.

True, social media is around which could offer a similar thing. But how can even a large organization comb through every social media post on all of the social media sites to find every mention about a story, let alone weed through what's helpful versus opinion versus fact versus reshared nothings versus misinformation for dozens, if not hundred of cases?

It's changed things a lot. Not fully for the better or worse. It's just changed.

It would have been wonderful if society had trended towards Good Samaritans, if over the decades, people just became better, goodness weaving its way into everyone's DNA.

But since that didn't happen, since the show still had enough stories it could get a reboot, since there are prison camps being boycotted right now, it's up to us to do better every day. Darklings, it's you and me, the people we know and the strangers we meet at parties. We have to try, whether or not it was passed down.

Maybe we can't find a babynapper or serial killer, maybe we can't reunite a couple who was torn apart by a war or help give closure to someone who was adopted, but we can make a difference.

Let's promise each other to go forth and do just that. Be there for people, pay attention, sign petitions, speak up, vote, and create. Don't aim to solve murders, aim to make life a little better than yesterday.

a lil board

Don't forget to tell me things in the comments or hit reply and chat with me personally. I love hearing from you all! The things can be related to the blog post or not.

Until next time, harness the Little darknesses and embrace the Little things.

P.S. Here is your reminder that you have two weeks to sign up for the June issue of The Little Periodical. A few new faces are joining me this month! I hope you'll be another one.