Sometimes it only takes a simple song to remind us of all the good the world has to offer. It really is a wonderful world, but sometimes it’s so hard to see.

More often than not, I feel discouraged when I look around. How can people do the things they do, say the things they say — how can they essentially take the humanity out of humanity? Why can’t we live and let live, and love our neighbors as ourselves?

I don’t know if looking around at the world we live in is a function of age, driven by the media, a byproduct of maturity, or maybe a little bit of each.

Another song tells us to imagine — imagine no heaven, no hell, only sky above us. No countries, nothing to kill or die for, no religion, just people living peacefully.

If there was never an “Imagine,” I suspect someone would have eventually penned a similar song. Its sentiment seems to be a common reflection among generations, across the ages.

It, and others like it, may have been the source of inspirational sayings that we “like,” print out, post in our offices, our cubicles, that we recite in our heads and buy magnets of for our refrigerators. Dream big. Live, love, laugh. Dance like nobody is watching. Believe. Hope. Wish upon a star.

You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one. Thank God for that.

Tonight I am thankful for both songs. Both ring more true than I ever manage to remember — that is, until I hear them, and they’re a good reminder of people who felt the same way we probably all do: saddened at the state of the world, but at the same time hopeful the good and the beautiful will continue to be visible.

Find the good, people. Find it no matter what.