Maybe we've been looking in wrong place as a way of dealing with the constant negative news about the economy. Our focus has been on business strategy, economic stimulus plans, and government policies. All things. And who is personally responsible? Perhaps the real answer lies in the human heart.

I came across a great post by Bill Taylor in the Harvard Business Review, in which he argues that the best recipe for our current negative times is to do something beautiful. Boston's legendary Dan-Farber Cancer Institute, where sick kids get some of the best care in the world, is building a big new facility. The Boston Globe reported that every morning, in bitter temperatures during the winter, iron workers showed up for work to complete the building. This amidst doom and gloom reports of the economy and layoffs and unemployment. It has become a beloved ritual at Dana-Farber: Every day, children who come to the clinic write their names on sheets of paper and tape them to the windows of the walkway for iron workers to see. And, every day, the iron workers paint the names onto I-beams and hoist them into place as they add floors to the new 14-story Yawkey Center for Cancer Care. The building's steel skeleton is now a brightly colored, seven-story monument to scores of children receiving treatment at the clinic -children like Lia, Alex, and Sam; Taylor, Izzy, and Danny. For the young cancer patients, who press their noses to the glass to watch new names added every day, the steel and spray-paint tribute has given them a few moments of joy and a towering symbol of hope.