Well, hello, my friends. Welcome to another Monday morning moments with John O'Leary, March 16th style.

As you know, we record these to start your day and your week with a quick burst of inspiration

to ensure that it gets off on the right foot. And what week

out of any that I can remember could we need a little bit more inspiration and meaning and a little bit

of joy and a pep in our step as we step into the week than this one? The world since our last

Monday morning moments has changed dramatically.

Borders have shut down. Markets have gone into free fall. Businesses have shut their doors.

Churches and synagogues have said closed. Schools have sent their kids home. The world is a

radically different place than the one that we

woke up into just one week ago. And yet, heroes remain ever present in our lives. And I want to

focus that focus today on our heroes. Normally, when we think of heroes, I think many of us think of actresses or actors.

We think of musicians. We think of celebrities. We think of athletes. We think of the most successful

and known among us. And then the coronavirus shows up. And all those begin to fade a little bit to

the sideline. And then we focus on what real heroes look like.

In Italy this week there was a really cool picture and then eventually a video of these Italians

coming off into their balconies providing a long, rousing, standing ovation to a group of people

going off to work. And no, it was not

basketball players. It was not baseball players getting ready for spring training. It was not some

awesome band getting ready to rock out some massive stadium. The people that these Italians were

celebrating were our health care workers and first responders. They were the only ones

who were able to use the streets to journey away from the safety of their home and venture off to

their work. Their job was to take care of the sickest and most ill of all of us. And they were being recognized for their heroism by their neighbors.

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