10 Acts of Awesomeness To Make Your Day

There are some people in this world who just “get it.”  They understand our fears, emotions, and the inner core of what make us tick in just about any situation.  It’s these folks that sometimes come up with ideas that are so simple yet so genius that you have to take a step back and appreciate that these individuals even exist.  Speaking of which, here are 10 acts of awesomeness that will make your day.

1. The World’s Most Huggable Library

In 1990, a teacher in rural Colombia named Luis Soriano noticed two things: First, many of the local children were illiterate; second, he happened to own two donkeys. So he did the logical thing, and created a “biblioburro,” or a library donkey. At dawn, Soriano loads up the donkey’s saddlebags with more than 100 books. Then, he travels to remote villages where he picks up kids, gives them rides to school, and encourages them to read while they commute. This has been going on for two decades, despite the fact that Soriano has a full-time job and was once attacked by bandits on his route. (When the robbers saw he had no money—only a donkey laden with books—they tied him to a tree and left.) Since the project began, the biblioburro has served 15 villages and more than 4,000 kids.

2. Ben Franklin’s future gamble

It started as something of a joke. In 1785, a French mathematician named Charles-Joseph Mathon de la Cour wrote a satire of Benjamin Franklin’s (famously optimistic) Poor Richard’s Almanack called Last Will and Testament of Fortunate Richard. This version involved a character so bullish about the future that, in his will, he bequeaths money that can’t be touched for 500 years. Franklin said he was “particularly charmed” with the idea—so charmed that he actually ran with it. When he died in 1790, he left £2,000 (about $8,800) to the cities of Boston and Philadelphia on one condition: They couldn’t touch the bulk of it for 100 years, at which point they could make a partial withdrawal. Then they had to wait another 100 years before getting the rest. The cities obeyed. Fast-forward 200 years, and the Franklin Fund is worth $6.5 million.

For the rest of this list head over to Neatorama!