+
“A balm for the soul”
  review on Goodreads
GOOD PEOPLE Book
upworthy
More

Rich, Old, White NBA Owner Says Offensive Things. So The NBA Went Ahead And Banned Him For Life.

Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock, you’ve probably heard about the reported conversation that happened between Donald Sterling (owner of the NBA’s Los Angeles Clippers) and V. Stiviano. In this conversation, the man reported to be Donald Sterling reprimands the woman for bringing black people to the games and for taking a picture with NBA legend Magic Johnson and putting it on Instagram. Keep in mind that Sterling has also been accused of racism before by the Justice Department and by former employees. Now it feels like everyone in the world has reacted to this. But these reactions have been amazing, and it's important to watch and read a least a few of them. Racism isn't going away unless we actively talk about it. Anyways, here are some reactions, and they probably come from people you’ll recognize.

Shaquille O'Neal and Charles Barkley:

Barkley makes a great point at 1:30.

Michael Jordan's official statement:

Jordan is also an owner of an NBA team.

"I look at this from two perspectives — as a current owner and a former player. As an owner, I'm obviously disgusted that a fellow team owner could hold such sickening and offensive views. I'm confident that Adam Silver will make a full investigation and take appropriate action quickly. As a former player, I'm completely outraged. There is no room in the NBA — or anywhere else — for the kind of racism and hatred that Mr. Sterling allegedly expressed. I am appalled that this type of ignorance still exists within our country and at the highest levels of our sport. In a league where the majority of players are African-American, we cannot and must not tolerate discrimination at any level."

President Obama:

Update: NBA Commissioner Adam Silver has banned Sterling for life from the NBA and fined him $2.5 million. He will try to get the league's owners to force Sterling to sell the team.

Badge
National Geographic Documentary Films
National Geographic Documentary Films
Family

Nat Geo's 'Blink' tracks a family finding beauty while facing blindness as they travel the globe

“Let's go all in and fill their visual memory with as much beauty as we can."

via Edith Lemay/NatGeo

Mia, Leo, Colin, and Laurent Pelletier pose on top of their camper van in front of adouble rainbow while in Mongolia.

True

“Blink,” a new film by National Geographic Documentary Films shows how a family with four children, three of whom are going blind, embraces life in the face of an uncertain future. It’s a testament to the resilience of the Lemay-Pelletier family but also a reminder for all of us to seize the day because all our futures are uncertain.

Edith Lemay and Sébastien Pelletier are the parents of Mia, a 13-year-old girl, and three boys: Léo, 11, Colin, 9, and Laurent, 7. Over the last six years, they’ve learned that Mia and the two youngest boys have retinitis pigmentosa, a rare genetic disease in which the cells of the retina slowly die. As the disease progresses, the person develops “tunnel vision” that shrinks until very little vision remains.

The diagnosis devastated the parents. "The hardest part with the diagnosis was inaction. There's nothing they can do about it. There's no treatment,” Edith says in the film.

However, even though the parents couldn’t affect the progress of the disease, they could give their children’s senses an epic experience that would benefit them for a lifetime.

“We don’t know how fast it’s going to go, but we expect them to be completely blind by mid-life,” said the parents. Mia’s impairment advisor suggested they fill her visual memory with pictures from books. “I thought, I’m not going to show her an elephant in a book; I’m going to take her to see a real elephant,” Edith explains in the film. “And I’m going to fill her visual memory with the best, most beautiful images I can.”

The Pelletier family (from left): Mia, Sebastien, Colin, Edith Lemay, Laurent and Leo inKuujjuaq, Canada.via National Geographic/Katie Orlinsky

This realization led to an inspiring year-long journey across 24 countries, during which every family member experienced something on their bucket list. Mia swam with dolphins, Edith rode a hot-air balloon in Cappadocia, and Léo saw elephants on safari.

Colin realized his dream of sleeping on a moving train while Sébastien saw the historic site of Angkor Wat.

“We were focusing on sights,” explains Pelletier. “We were also focusing a lot on fauna and flora. We’ve seen incredible animals in Africa but also elsewhere. So we were really trying to make them see things that they wouldn’t have seen at home and have the most incredible experiences.”

Cameras followed the family for 76 days as they traveled to far-flung locales, including Namibia, Mongolia, Egypt, Laos, Nepal and Turkey. Along the way, the family made friends with local people and wildlife. In a heartbreaking scene, the boys wept as the family had to leave behind a dog named Bella he befriended in the mountains of Nepal.

But the film isn't just about the wonders of nature and family camaraderie. The family's trip becomes a “nightmare” when they are trapped in a cable car suspended hundreds of feet above the Ecuadorian forest for over 10 hours.

annapurna range, blink, nat geoLeo, Laurent, Edith, Colin, Mia, and Sebastien look out at the mountains in the Annapurna range.via MRC/Jean-Sébastien Francoeur

As expected, NatGeo’s cinematographers beautifully capture the family's journey, and in the case of “Blink,” this majestic vision is of even greater importance. In some of the film's quietest moments, we see the children taking in the world's wonders, from the vast White Desert in Egypt to a fearless butterfly in Nepal, with the full knowledge that their sight will fail one day.

Along the way, the family took as many pictures as possible to reinforce the memories they made on their adventure. “Maybe they’ll be able to look at the photographs and the pictures and they will bring back those stories, those memories, of the family together,” Edith says.

But the film is about more than travel adventures and the pain of grief; ultimately, it’s about family.

“By balancing [the parents’ grief] with a more innocent and joyous tale of childlike wonder and discovery, we felt we could go beyond a mere catalog of locations and capture something universal,” the directors Edmund Stenson and Daniel Roher, said in a statement. “Keeping our camera at kid-height and intimately close to the family, we aimed to immerse the audience in the observational realities of their daily life, as well as the subtle relationships between each of them. This is a film built on looks, gestures and tiny details—the very fabric of our relationships with one another.”

Ultimately, “Blink” is a great film to see with your loved ones because it’s a beautiful reminder to appreciate the wonders of our world, the gift of our senses and the beauty of family.

The film will open in over 150 theaters in the U.S. and Canada beginning Oct. 4 and will debut on National Geographic Channel and stream on Disney+ and Hulu later this year. Visit the “Blink” website for more information.

From Your Site Articles
national geographic
Family

People applauded after Mark Wahlberg confronted the DJ at his daughter's dance party

Dad to the rescue.

via TheEllenShow / YouTube

Mark Wahlberg on "The Ellen Show."

Actor Mark Wahlberg recently attended a daddy-daughter dance with his 10-year-old, Grace. Sadly, Grace had no interest in seeing her father strutting his stuff on the dance floor.

"I didn't get one dance," Wahlberg told Ellen DeGeneres. "And I told her we were going to do the whole big circle and I was going to go off. And she said, 'Dad, if you embarrass me, I will never talk to you again.' But what she did do is she hung out with me."

No matter who your dad is, especially if you're a 10-year-old-girl, you have zero desire to see him dance in front of your friends.

But the parents at the dance probably would have had a blast seeing Wahlberg bust out some of his old-school '90s Marky Mark moves.

However, Wahlberg couldn't help but leave his mark on the music being played at the dance.

Let's not forget, he didn't get famous for his acting but for showing off his abs in the "Good Vibrations" video.

Being that Wahlberg's time as a pop star was three decades ago, he couldn't believe it when he heard the music being played at the dance.

"[Grace] sat there on the edge of the stage, by the DJ. And then I'm sitting there with one other dad and I'm like, 'This is not an edited version of this song. There are explicit lyrics being played at a school dance for girls and I'm like no good,'" he said.

"I told the DJ and he's like, 'Oh, I thought it was.' I said, 'What are you doing?' I'm hearing F-bombs and this and that's not okay," Wahlberg said.

He's right. There's no place for music with explicit lyrics at a dance for 10-year-old children.

Wahlberg says the DJ didn't know he wasn't playing the edited version, but it's probably more likely that he didn't even realize the song was a problem. Pop music these days is filled with a numbing amount of violent and misogynistic lyrics.

A recent study from the University of Missouri found that nearly one-third of pop songs contain lyrics that degrade or demean women by portraying them as submissive or sexually objectified.

Currently, three of the top five songs on the Billboard Top 40 contain the word "bitch." One of them is sung in Korean.

It's odd that Americans have become more sensitive to misogyny in pop culture in films, television, and comedy, but still have a huge cultural blind-spot when it comes to music.

That's not a good thing, especially when pop music is marketed to teenagers.

"We know that music has a strong impact on young people and how they view their role in society," said Cynthia Frisby, a professor in the Missouri School of Journalism.

"Unlike rap or hip-hop, pop music tends to have a bubbly, uplifting sound that is meant to draw listeners in," Frisby continued. "But that can be problematic if the lyrics beneath the sound are promoting violence and misogynistic behavior."

Let's face it, pop stars are role models. Their examples show young people what to wear and how to behave. That's not to say that kids will blindly follow someone just because they like their music. But it has an undeniable effect.

Wahlberg, and any parent who monitors what their kids are listening to, deserve credit for protecting the minds and hearts of their kids.

Frisby has some great advice for parents concerned about negative imagery in pop music.

"Ask your daughters and sons what songs they like to listen to and have conversations about how the songs might impact their identity," Frisby said.

"For example, many songs might make young girls feel like they have to look and act provocative in order to get a boy to like them, when that isn't necessarily the case. If children and teens understand that what they are hearing isn't healthy behavior, then they might be more likely to challenge what they hear on the radio."

He's right. There's no place for music with explicit lyrics at a dance for 10-year-old children.

Wahlberg says the DJ didn't know he wasn't playing the edited version, but it's probably more likely that he didn't even realize the song was a problem. Pop music these days is filled with a numbing amount of violent and misogynistic lyrics.

A recent study from the University of Missouri found that nearly one-third of pop songs contain lyrics that degrade or demean women by portraying them as submissive or sexually objectified.

Currently, three of the top five songs on the Billboard Top 40 contain the word "bitch." One of them is sung in Korean.

It's odd that Americans have become more sensitive to misogyny in pop culture in films, television, and comedy, but still have a huge cultural blind-spot when it comes to music.

That's not a good thing, especially when pop music is marketed to teenagers.

"We know that music has a strong impact on young people and how they view their role in society," said Cynthia Frisby, a professor in the Missouri School of Journalism.

"Unlike rap or hip-hop, pop music tends to have a bubbly, uplifting sound that is meant to draw listeners in," Frisby continued. "But that can be problematic if the lyrics beneath the sound are promoting violence and misogynistic behavior."

Let's face it, pop stars are role models. Their examples show young people what to wear and how to behave. That's not to say that kids will blindly follow someone just because they like their music. But it has an undeniable effect.

Wahlberg, and any parent who monitors what their kids are listening to, deserve credit for protecting the minds and hearts of their kids.

Frisby has some great advice for parents concerned about negative imagery in pop music.

"Ask your daughters and sons what songs they like to listen to and have conversations about how the songs might impact their identity," Frisby said.

"For example, many songs might make young girls feel like they have to look and act provocative in order to get a boy to like them, when that isn't necessarily the case. If children and teens understand that what they are hearing isn't healthy behavior, then they might be more likely to challenge what they hear on the radio."


This article originally appeared on 03.03.20

From Your Site Articles
mark wahlberg scolds dj
Science

Cemetery captures a bluebird couple's beautiful family life with camera-equipped birdhouse

The 2-minute video of their 48-day nesting cycle has been viewed 33 million times.

Photo credit: Canva (representative photos)

Bluebirds tend to mate for life.

A cemetery is usually a place we associate with the end of life, not the beginning of it, but a Pennsylvania cemetery has flipped that script entirely with a sweet 2-minute video.

The Historic Easton Cemetery in the small town of Easton, Pennsylvania, has built a huge fan base with its viral footage of two bluebirds building a nest and raising a family over the course a month and a half. The cemetery shared that it had installed a birdhouse equipped with a solar-powered camera in the spring, and soon a bluebird couple showed up to check it out.

Clearly deciding that the house had good bones, the couple began building a nest, bringing in twigs and arranging them in a circular pattern, with the female creating a round spot to lay her eggs. On Day 13, she laid her first egg, then another, then another and another. On Day 30, the eggs began to hatch, and for the next couple of weeks we see the mom and dad take turns bringing the babies food.

It's so simple, yet completely engaging to see the nesting cycle in its entirety—48 days edited down to just a few minutes. Watch:

The reel cut off due to time, so the cemetery posted the Part 2 video showing the fledglings leaving the nest as well:

The birdhouse was the brainchild of Mike Pearsall, whose grandmother loved bluebirds and had birdhouses. She's buried in Historic Easton Cemetery and he built the camera-enabled birdhouse in her honor. He told WFMZ that he assumed sparrows would primarily use it, so he was thrilled when the bluebird pair showed up and claimed the house first.

People can't get enough of the bluebirds and their little family

Bluebirds tend to mate for life, which makes seeing this pair setting up house and caring for their babies extra special. The first day, it's almost as if they were genuinely house hunting—you could almost hear the, "What do you think, hon? Should we get it?" And then to see them working together to build their nest and feed their young was truly heartwarming.

People found the videos delightfully riveting.

"Thank you for sharing. This is heart happiness right here! 🩵💙"

"I didn't realize how fast the eggs hatch! Neat :) Beautiful birds."

"How sweet they work together 💙💙"

"Thank you for your beautiful reel… made me smile. I feed my cardinals and jays everyday. Never thought to do anything like this."

"It’s just amazing how animals/birds instinctively know how to care for their babies."

"I never knew they laid 1 egg each consecutive day like that… idk why but I thought it would be an all at once scenario??"

"I love that new life is being born in a cemetery."

Birds are surprisingly fascinating to watch

There's a reason birdwatching is a thing. Humans have always found birds intriguing (they can FLY, for the love), but when the birdwatching bug gets you it can take you by surprise.

The world saw a big birdwatching boom during the COVID-19 pandemic, when social distancing gave us the time and the desire for such outdoor activity. People who always wondered how "watching birds" could possibly be considered a hobby found out why people who do it love it so much. In fact, according to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, 35% of Americans age 16 and older now identify as birdwatchers.

@wbupalospark

#springmigration2023 #wbupalospark #birdnerd


But you don't even have to be an avid birder to appreciate seeing the natural cycle of a bird family. Bird's nests are usually built where it's hard for humans to see them, and even if we can, none of us have the time to sit and watch for a month and a half to see how the nest gets built, the eggs get hatched and the babies get taken care of.

Stationary cameras like the one in the top of the birdhouse allow us to observe bird behavior without disturbing their habitat. Similar cameras are sometimes set up near hawk or eagle nests to help facilitate wildlife research and conservation as well as to educate the public. The more connection we have with nature, the more we understand the importance of protecting the environment and the more responsibility we tend to take to care for the Earth. Connection with nature might look like hiking through the woods, getting to know the squirrels in your backyard or witnessing the nesting cycle of bluebirds at a cemetery in Pennsylvania, but it all leads to the same place—an appreciation of the beauty and wonder of the natural world and an urge to see it thrive.

You can follow Historic Easton Cemetery on Instagram.

From Your Site Articles
wildlife
Heroes

Teen foils a hotel-room intruder by using a trick her cop stepdad taught her

Great advice and quick thinking saved her life.

via Josie Bowers / TikTok

Josie Bowers, a 19-year-old woman from Canada, shared the story of how she thwarted an intruder when she was 15. The viral TikTok video is a harrowing tale and also an important lesson for everyone to learn.

Josie was staying with her family at the Ocean City Hilton in Maryland when the incident occurred. She went to her hotel room alone to take a shower while her family was on the beach.

After getting out of the shower, she was alarmed when she noticed a long wire with a hook at the end wiggling its way out of the crack at the bottom of the front door. The hook was waving around, trying to catch the handle to open the door.

It's amazing that no one in the hallway noticed someone shoving a wire through the bottom of a door.

The intruders eventually caught the handle with the wire and pulled it down to enter the room. Without hesitation, Josie slammed the door shut and put on the deadbolt.

"My main thought was holy shit I'm in a towel right now and someone is about to break in and get me," she said on TikTok. "So the door opens a crack, and I just slammed it back shut and put the deadbolt on."

After the door was shut on the intruders, they pretended to work for the hotel. "So they tell me your keycard is broken and we need to get into the room and fix your keypad for you," she continued. "And so I open the door a tad bit, to see if it was a worker. It clearly wasn't, they were in jeans and a T-shirt. Hilton keeps it pretty classy, not the attire."


@josiebowers10

Reply to @emmade1rey #part2


Josie then remembered a trick that her stepfather, who's a police officer, once told her: Never let people know you're alone.

"I yelled 'Hey dad, there's someone here to fix the door.' As soon as they thought that I wasn't alone – and potentially my dad was there – they ran, they were gone," she said. A lot of people freeze in such a stressful situation but Josie was able to remember her stepfather's advice and it made all the difference.

Given their reaction, it's pretty clear that the intruders must have followed her up from the beach or had some inside information to know that she was alone. They didn't want anything to do with her father.

The TikTokker shared the video to show others what they should do in a similar situation and to remind them to never let anyone know they are alone.

"I'm glad I had this experience so I can teach people about it. Obviously, I'm safe but it could have ended up a lot worse," she said. "Be safe, you can get door stoppers, always put on the deadbolt."


This article originally appeared on 8.24.21

From Your Site Articles
safety
Joy

It’s sad, but you never know when these 15 special moments will happen for the last time

"One day you will pick up your little boy/girl and carry them l for the very last time."

via Canva

A father picking up his child.

As the old saying goes, there is a first and last time for everything. The sad thing is that while we often recognize when we are doing something for the first time, we usually don’t know we’re doing something for the final time until much later.

You can only move forward in life, and sometimes, when you look back, you remember people, places, and things you will never experience again.

It can be depressing to realize that you will never have specific experiences again or didn’t fully appreciate them when they happened. But it’s also an invitation to embrace everything you have in your life right now that one day will end.

A Redditor named OK-Reporter-8728 posed a question to the AskOldPeople subforum that got many people thinking about the last times in their lives. “What’s something most people don’t realize they will never experience again in life?” the Redditor asked. The responses were a mix of bittersweet memories people shared about the last time they enjoyed the joys of childhood or spent time with a loved one.

They also discussed that they never fully appreciated it when their bodies were young, strong, and beautiful or when they were parents of young children.



Here are 15 things people didn’t realize they will never experience again.

1. Last time that you played with your friends

"Like when they live across the street and you go over to knock on the door and her mom comes to answer and you ask, can ______ come out to play? Sure you can text and call people and drive over and pick them up and go do something, but it’s not the same as asking their mom if they can come out to play."

"I don't remember my last time playing with friends, but this one makes my heart ache. Whenever I watch 'Stand by Me,' the last scene when Gordie is watching all his friends walk away as you hear how their lives turned out makes me tear up every time."

2. Last call from a parent

"Mine was a voicemail, so I still have it since 5 years ago, and I will never delete it. Mom called to say she thought she was having a stroke."

"I was the last family member to speak to my dad before he passed from cancer. Spoke to him on the phone for 20 minutes one night and he was gone the next morning."

3. Pain-free movement

"Enjoy your healthy young bodies while you can, because they do not last forever, no matter how well you take care of yourself."



4. When time is unlimted

"The feeling that time is unlimited. You reach a certain age and you realize that though you don’t know what’s left, a lot of the sand in the hourglass must be gone."

"I'm 70. My dad died when he was 84, same with his father, so I'm anticipating my last year on earth will be 2038. And yes, when I was young I felt eternal and invincible. No longer. The clock is ticking and every morning I wake up, I'm grateful for another day."

5. Last time you pick up your child

"One day you will pick up your little boy/girl and carry them l for the very last time. Broke my heart when I heard it cause I realized it was true and I couldn't remember the last time I picked up and carried my now 24 yr old son. The night of my daughter's 13th bday, I decided I would pick her up and carry her to bed for the last time in my life. That way I would always remember it. Afterwards, I ran to my room and cried in the bathroom. Enjoy it while it lasts."

"They say by the time your kid goes away to college, you will have spent 90% of the time in your life you will ever spend with them. Even typing that makes me cry - the two people I love more than anything in this world and my time with them on this earth is basically over. And I am only 50 years old. Makes carpool days of long ago seem so much more important than it seemed at the time."



6. Picking up kids from school

"Dropping off and picking up my kids from school. When the last time happens, you don't realize it,and that's sad."

"They will never be as young as they are today. Your body and experiences will change you. Innocence will be lost and you will realize that sometimes ignorance really is bliss."

7. Last time you hugged your parents

"I will never get to hug my mom or my dad again. Even tho it’s something I realize, it’s still a little hard to believe."

8. Making out with someone new

"I was just thinking about this the other day.'Honeymoon period/new relationship energy hormones are extremely unique and as far as we know, impossible to truly replicate in a long term relationship, even a happy one with great sexual chemistry. The drug addicted feeling that makes teenagers cry and artists create is very specific. And best case scenario, in a happy death-till-us-part marriage, it’ll never come again."



9. The beauty of your 20s

"When I see old photos of myself, I think of what I could’ve done better if I’d had the confidence that I have now. I have no regrets, life is what it is, but to have had the confidence and be handsome and fit… My partner says I’m more handsome now though so I don’t dwell on it."

10. Going to the park

"The last time you take your kids to the park to play. I loved seeing them so happy and making friends at the park. Then one day they just don't want to go anymore."

11. Kissing dad

"Kissing your father if you’re a boy. I don’t remember the last time I kissed him, but I vividly remember the last time I almost did. I was leaving the house one day when I was around 13. I kissed my Mom as I usually did. I then turned to my Dad and started to kiss him. He prepared to receive my kiss. But then I caught myself. I smiled sheepishly, patted his face, and turned and left the house. I never kissed him again after that day."

12. Seeing without glasses

"Yes. The time I could read the smallest of print by simply focusing my eyes on the subject."



13. Summer anticipation

"Joy of summer vacation with nothing to do but hang out with friends all day and have other people feed you every meal and pay for nothing. That sweet last day of school. Few joys in the world compare to the exhilaration and possibilities of the upcoming summer."

14. Feeling close to someone

"At this stage in my life, after losing my wife to small cell lung cancer two years ago, I realize that I may never feel intimacy with a partner again. I know it’s possible to meet someone new after 70, but I can’t see that happening again for me. It’s a hard pill to swallow, but I guess that’s just life. You get old and things of your youth are long gone."

15. The last time seeing a friend

"The last time you see an old friend that becomes an acquaintance once girls enter the picture. That even though they moved to another country, you assumed that you would see them again. And you hear that they died, and you're not 100% sure that was the last time you saw them."

From Your Site Articles
life
Heroes

Gardener in India spends his days tending plants and saving people from suicide attempts

He's saved over 50 people who have jumped in the river.

Photo credit: Canva

Gardener in India has pulled 50 people from river, thwarting suicide attempts

Editor's Note: This story discusses suicide. If you are having thoughts about taking your own life, or know of anyone who is in need of help, the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline is a United States-based suicide prevention network of over 200+ crisis centers that provides 24/7 service via a toll-free hotline with the number 9-8-8. It is available to anyone in suicidal crisis or emotional distress.

People struggling with mental health is universal. There's no shortage of mental health conditions or life circumstances that cause people to quickly spiral into depression when things don't look up for long periods of time. In those moments of struggle, it can be helpful to have someone around that you can talk to but not everyone has access to that. And not everyone who has a solid support system reaches out when things take a dark turn.

For some, they see suicide as a way out of the suffering they may be experiencing but in many cases the suffering will pass if the person holds on a little longer.Cuttack, India is the home of Mahanadi barrage, a concrete fixture that is designed to divert water in rivers and other bodies of water. Some barrages also double as a bridge allowing cars and pedestrians to cross but in Cuttack, people were using the barrage for another reason–jumping into the river.

The Mahanadi river has an extremely strong current making it difficult to swim in, so unless you're in a boat it's unusual to see people in the dangerous body of water. That's where Babuli Behera comes in. He's a 55-year-old garden supervisor for the Cuttack Municipal Corporation and has thwarted over 50 suicide attempts from people leaping from the top of the barrage.

Behera's life-saving mission didn't just start recently, the first time he saved a woman who stepped off of the water diverting apparatus was when he was just 15. The then teen boy had newly dropped out of high school to help his parents' fishing business when the woman jumping from the barrage caught his eye causing him to instinctively jump in the raging river after her. Thanks to his quick action and strong swimming skills, he was able to get the woman safely ashore.

Giphy

Behera tells The New Indian Times that his parents ensured that he knew how to swim against the river's strong currents before he began fishing with them.

“There was no concrete barrage over Mahanadi then. There was a wooden barrage a few metres above the present barrage. I had mastered the trick of taking the perfect dive into Mahanadi from the wooden barrage,” he tells the outlet.

a man in a yellow turban is picking flowers Photo by Shruti Singh on Unsplash

Thanks to his experience, though he's no longer a fisherman he can't help but keep an eye on the top of the barrage when he's tending to the garden. This has allowed him to save many people, including teenagers. Behera's not alone in his efforts though, he works alongside his wife to make sure the people he rescues gets to the hospital and the couple stays with them until the person's family comes.

While it may seem like Behera is a real life super hero, he has been hurt while trying to rescue someone from the dangerous river. In July, the man broke his leg while saving an elderly woman who jumped in the river. Though he broke his leg, he was still able to rescue the woman and get her to safety.

Behera tells The New Indian Times, “When we ask them why they want to end their lives, the students would blame it on exam failure. The women mostly jumped into the river due to failed affairs, marriages or domestic violence.”

Back in 2018, Behera's son, Chandan also earned his superhero cape after a bus careened off of the bridge into the river. The boy jumped into the water and helped pull out several passengers, so saving lives is sort of the family business. Behera is well respected in Cuttack as many people have seen him unselfishly put himself at risk to save the life of someone attempting suicide. He was also recognized by the Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi and Deputy Chief Minister Pravati Parida for his heroic acts.

Winner Celebrate GIF by AwkwafinaGiphy

The man and his wife don't run any sort of specialized organization, he's simply a gardener with a keen eye for people in distress and a childhood survival swim skill. Hopefully the people Behera saved got the help they needed long after they were pulled from the river and are living happy and healthy lives.

From Your Site Articles
mental health
Trending Stories