海角大神

It鈥檚 amazing how life-altering 鈥� and far-reaching 鈥� a modest effort to break pandemic ennui can be.

Take the young man who, while browsing recently in the ReMARKable Cleanouts warehouse in Norwood, Massachusetts, asked if he could play a piano 鈥� and charmed shoppers with Journey鈥檚 鈥淒on鈥檛 Stop Believin鈥�.鈥� A worker posted the moment to Facebook, and soon a much larger audience was smiling, some offering to buy him the piano. ReMARKable owner Mark Waters decided to gift an even better one 鈥� if he could figure out who the player behind the face mask and hoodie was. He did a local news interview 鈥� and John Capron came forward.

鈥淚 didn鈥檛 know I affected so many people,鈥� mused Mr. Capron, an architecture student and self-taught pianist. Mr. Waters couldn鈥檛 stop smiling: 鈥淚f you can bring [a piano] into somebody else鈥檚 life and bring it back to life, God bless America,鈥� he told 鈥淭hat鈥檚 what life鈥檚 about.鈥�

Or take Chang Wan-ji and Hsu Sho-er, whose dry cleaning business in Taichung, Taiwan, slowed amid the pandemic. Their grandson, Reef Chang, convinced them to model abandoned clothing items on Instagram to buoy their spirits 鈥� and what started as a playful diversion has delighted a global audience who send messages, and local customers who visit more. Chang Wan-ji says he hopes to inspire his fellow octogenarians to be active.

And his grandson? 鈥淟ately, whenever we eat together,鈥� he told 鈥淚 can tell they鈥檙e elated.鈥�