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There's too much drat negativity and irony and sarcasm and bullshit on the internet. Sometimes we just need to be reminded of the compassionate, human, kind, hopeful things in life. Have you ever had something happen that made you tear up from joy, gratitude or just plain relief? Here's one of mine. There's this march every summer in the Dutch town of Nijmegen where some 40.000 people gather to walk 40 km every day for 4 days. It's pretty big in military circles, and military teams from all over the world gather here every year to do this march. There's even an official medal for participating and everything. I went down there in 2008 as part of the Swedish National Guard contingent. The military teams stay in a camp on the outskirts of Nijmegen. You get up at 04:00 in the morning, force down the chocolate covered sponge cake and watered-down coffee that passes for breakfast in the Netherlands, and then you have 10 hours to complete the day's 40 km. Military participants have to carry at least a 10 kg pack at all times, not including water or whatever clothes you're wearing. When I did the march, one swedish oldtimer just carried a 10 kg building block strapped to his back. There's rest stops every 10 km, and the streets are lined with kids handing out candy or fruit in return for stickers or badges. The absolute best were the kids handing out salted cucumber slices, narrowly defeating the guys handing out trays of free beer. When you've been going on sugar, fructose and painkillers for the last 8 hours, the last thing you want is more candy. Anyway, by day 3 I'm a complete wreck. I'm wearing double socks in my boots (thinking this would help prevent blisters), and as a consequence my feet are covered in huge blisters. I'm limping along. It's raining. The day's route is nothing but hills. Everything sucks, and I would have called it quits and given up if it wasn't for the fact that I would still have had to walk back to camp. I also happen to have a large Swedish naval flag strapped to my backpack. As I'm marching along, in the pouring rain, staring dead-eyed in front of me, this old dutch guy comes up alongside me. "Are you from Sweden?" he asks. I grunt in response, as if the flag wasn't a clue. "I just want to say thank you" he says. That makes me pretty confused. What has Sweden ever done for anyone? Well, he goes on to explain to me how he was a young child in Amsterdam back in 1944-45, when the city was blockaded by German forces trying to stop the allies. After a winter of starvation and misery, a number of Swedish ships finally broke the blockade and delivered aid to the city. The first bread he ate in six months, he said, was baked with Swedish flour. And for that, he wanted to thank me. I'm tired and I'm hurting. I just can't help myself. I start crying like a baby, and it doesn't stop until I walk across the finish line a couple of hours later.
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Mar 9, 2019 00:04
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Roblo posted:What up fellow Nijmegen marcher. I did it a couple times as an Air Cadet, and we used to get some really nice comments from people. Was a great thing to do. What up! Only done it once. The year I went there was an american contingent along. They'd always march in formation, but there was this big black dude who couldn't keep up. He'd fall further and further behind until he was marching all by himself. By day 2 spectators would recognize the lone black american and try to cheer him up, so he'd get handed flags and stuff along the way that he'd hang from his backpack. Every day when he crossed the finish line people would cheer and bring him free beer. It was nice. Dunno if he managed the entire march though, never saw him the last day.
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Mar 25, 2019 20:14
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I used to be pretty indifferent to people suffering in media because, c'mon, it's just pretend! But things change when you get kids. I watch this guy Campster on youtube sometimes, he does pretty decent reviews of indy games and stuff. Two years ago I was sitting at home, my infant son finally asleep, and I was watching a review of a weird indy game called That Dragon, Cancer. It's a video game about a dad coping with his infant son suffering from cancer. Weird loving premise for a game. I haven't even played it, I've only ever seen (part of) that review. Anyway, there's a scene in the game that's shown in the review, where the protagonist walks round and round inside a darkened hospital room, carrying his son and trying to calm him down. The baby won't sleep, won't eat, won't accept any toys, he's just in pain from the cancer and cries and cries. I had to shut the video off at that point. I was just a sniveling, bleary-eyed mess. I'd been carrying my own son around just twenty minutes earlier, trying to make him sleep, and that poo poo just triggered some parental angst in me. I can't stand to see young kids hurt anymore, even if it's just in fiction. I barely got through the first ten minutes of the new IT movie.
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Apr 6, 2019 20:28
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Motherfuck. The fact that the "Please don't euthanize" plea is obviously an adult's handwriting while the rest is a child's is really gut-wrenching.
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Apr 6, 2019 22:55
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Rolo posted:My buddy I’ve known for 20 years grew up watching gory mind numbing horror movies but he has a kid now and it’s the same for him. I’m reading The Road for the first time and I was describing the book to him and he’s all like Oh yeah, gently caress The Road. The part where they find a gun, and the dad shows his son how to commit suicide with it... Yeah, gently caress that poo poo.
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Apr 6, 2019 22:58
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