Jens and Abby- This is fabulous. I read this today about some runners in a race in San Jose and it was so inspiring that I had to share it with you today.
SAN JOSE -- Everyone on the block knows Joe Bell. Whether he's tinkering with his old fishing boat in the driveway or telling World War II stories from the sidewalk, neighbors always stop to chat.
Once in a while he dons his uniform, which still fits his thin, 95-year-old frame, and wears it to the senior center for lunch on Veterans Day or to meet with other vets.
When he put it on again Sunday morning, something spectacular happened. Joe stepped outside his Cape Cod-style house in San Jose's Rose Garden neighborhood to cheer on runners in a race that benefits the foundation for fallen Army Ranger Pat Tillman. One by one, the runners left the course to shake an old soldier's hand.
I live two doors down from Joe and captured the moment with my iPhone. Within 48 hours, the 45-second video went viral and was picked up by the Today Show, Good Morning America, Fox, Runners World, and a host of other media outlets.
By Tuesday evening, the video had been viewed and shared more than a million times.
It started so simply. As Joe stood a bit stooped on the sidewalk waving and cheering, the runners started waving and cheering back. When one of them saluted, Joe saluted back.
"Go get 'em," he called out.
I started filming. Then one of the runners, a young man in a red shirt, ran onto the sidewalk and, mid-stride, shook Joe's hand.
"Thank you for your service," he said, panting, then jogged on.
Another runner followed, then another and another. They began to pile up. For a moment, I worried Joe might get knocked over.
But as I recorded, I couldn't help but get choked up to see this sweet old man, beloved by his neighbors, receiving a parade of tributes from strangers. It was especially poignant coming during a benefit for Tillman, a San Jose native who was killed in action in Afghanistan. Tillman had given up an NFL career to join the Army after 9/11.
Joe looked surprised, almost overwhelmed.
"I never got recognition in my life," he told me on Tuesday, as TV camera crews lined up at his door to tell the story of the former Army corporal who trained paratroopers from Italy to Africa for the OSS, the Office of Strategic Services that preceded the CIA. "I was a jumper in the OSS. That's all."
I wasn't covering the race as a news story, but I posted the video to the San Jose Mercury News website, thinking it was a simple feel-good moment that Joe and his family would enjoy.
WWII veteran, Joe Bell, 95, wears his uniform in his home in San Jose, Calif. on Tuesday, March 4, 2014. Bell became a viral video Internet sensation after Mercury News writer Julia Prodis-Sulek posted a Tout video of the spontaneous tributes Bell received while he was standing in front of his home cheering on participants during the annual Pat Tillman running race while wearing his uniform last Sunday. (Gary Reyes/Bay Area News Group) ( Gary Reyes )
The video got little traction Sunday night as millions of Americans instead were retweeting Ellen DeGeneres's selfie with the movie stars during the Oscars. But by Monday night, Yahoo posted it on its home page. By Tuesday morning, all the major networks were broadcasting the video and some sent news crews to Joe's house. One of them tracked down the first runner in the video, Erik Wittreich, a former Green Beret who fought in Iraq and Afghanistan who coincidentally had been awarded a Pat Tillman Foundation scholarship to finish his graduate work at Stanford.
"I just saw this former soldier showing a lot of respect for his uniform," Wittreich said while visiting Joe at his home Tuesday. "He was clearly proud to show he was in the military. It was important for me to thank him."
Joe lives with his grown son, Matt. His wife, Mary, died four years ago.
"I thought the video caught a moment in time that was honest," Matt Bell said. "There was nothing staged about it. It was an honest response from honest people. We don't see that too much."
And he hasn't seen his father this excited in a long time, he said.
Joe was born in 1919 in Shanghai, China, one of 17 children from a wealthy family descended from an American who joined Commodore Matthew Perry on his expedition to open trading with Japan in the 1850s. The family remained in China for generations until Joe and half his family moved to the United States in the 1930s just before Japan invaded China. He joined the Army in 1942. When he returned to San Jose, he worked as a tool-and-die maker at the FMC Corp. He and his wife raised seven children. Together, they ran Central Nursery School a few blocks away.
Joe is so hard of hearing, you almost have to shout for him to understand you. But he is as sharp as ever. He swims nearly every day at the YMCA or the senior center. Still, ambulances come and go from his house late at night when he feels his heart race and worries he's having a heart attack. He tells me from time to time he doesn't think he's going to live much longer. He's had a good long life, he says, and is ready to join his wife.
But first came the parade of well-wishers. During the race, perhaps most amazing of all was that the tributes among the 5,000 runners kept coming. Throughout the race, they came in waves. Women and men would be running down the middle of the street, then, without warning or prompt, one would peel off, then another.
"They hugged me and kissed me and the young men shook my hands," Joe said. "I never knew there were that many people that would do that."
Instead of trying to win the race, the runners are focused on saying Thank-you. What if we all lived our lives more focused on thanking… than the race… because that is how we win the race? What if this would be the mark of your race ahead? What if each day you stopped to give thanks? I really think it will make a difference and it will bring joy. Gratitude is not just a good idea- it's a way to be on the offensive when life throws some curveballs our way.
On my run today, I thought about this about how that race became about thanking. I began to give thanks
* for you
* for your commitment
* for the incredible organization Abby has now to color code her boxes as she packs things up
* for the fact that when you hung out with us last spring in my parents' driveway and you threw a ball with Anna and Taylor and made them laugh (even though your lung capacity was probably at about 15-20% but I had no idea)
* for the bright yellow daffodils against the gray sky today
* for the pink popping on the cherry blossoms
* for the gift of breathing that I totally take for granted most of the time
* for the gift of running in the rain
* for seeing people walking close together under umbrellas today
* for a beautiful ring on Abby's finger
* for the community that is surrounding you in this race
* for life and love and hope and faith...
sending you cheers from my little run in the rain today...
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