Don't mope, have hope: Global stories from 2023 that inspire optimism and delight

Earlier this year, a Goats and Soda reader wrote in with a quote from Garth Stein’s The Art of Racing in the Rain: “The car goes where your eyes go.”

“It’s so important, especially as the news cycle is full of cruelty and suffering, for us to carefully choose what we read, listen to, pay attention to,” wrote Naomi Krokowski of Berthoud, Colo. “The car, my brain, goes where my eyes go — so I need to keep looking at hopeful art and look for joy in the children I love and remind myself to keep watching for good things.”

It’s easy to catalog the year’s grim lowlights – its wars, disasters and protracted crises getting worse. But it’s worth taking time to turn our eyes back to the stories this year that gave us reasons to hope, from “beach day” in Mogadishu to the wonders of raising chickens.