In September 2024, while filming a music video, Jon Bon Jovi saved a life.
The story: Jon was filming the video on a bridge in Nashville. Someone noticed a woman who had stepped over the guard rail on the bridge and was standing on a ledge with nothing but open air between her and the Cumberland River below. Videos and photos of Jon and a production assistant first talking to, then helping the woman off of the ledge, quickly made their way to the internet. After she stepped back over the barrier, Jon embraced the woman. He held her for a few seconds, then held her by the shoulders, and spoke to her.
Perhaps the woman might have decided not to jump. Perhaps she would have. That is unknowable. What matters is that celebrity and Grammy-winning, Rock & Roll Hall of Famer Jon Bon Jovi chose to stop and hold space for another human being in pain. Where the story leads, what happens next…again, unknowable. And, I would argue, not as important as the lesson from that moment, from that day, on a bridge over the Cumberland River.
We are presented with opportunities every single day to stop and hold space for other human beings. Somewhere, someone, is in pain. The difference for them between life and death might very well be the kindness and compassion of one person. The stakes don’t have to be that high, either. Kindness and compassion from one person might be just enough to shift anger to calm, turmoil to tranquility, or sadness to hopefulness.
You don’t have to save a life to have an impact. A smile or a kind word might be enough to save a day. Like a hero in a movie.
Like that time Jon Bon Jovi saved a life.
Illuminate Possibilities 