Good News Sunday: The Bird Call Kid

You're going to have to see (and hear) this to believe it

Happy Sunday, everyone. For today’s Good News, we’re doing things a little differently. There’s just one story (video) I keep coming back to, and I just had to share it with you.

So there’s this kid, Samuel Henderson. He’s 12, he’s from Choctaw, Oklahoma. And the thing about Samuel is he can do bird calls. Like, real bird calls. 114 of them, last I read.

I know that sounds like a fun little party trick until you actually hear it. He’s not close. He’s dead on. There’s an app that birders use to identify birds by their sound, and Samuel will make a call into it and the app just goes, yep, that’s a cardinal. His mom says birds in parking lots will follow him around because they think he’s one of them.

He taught himself all of this. He’d be out at school by himself, back by the fence, just practicing. Samuel has autism and Tourette’s, and for years this was kind of his own private thing. Most of the kids at school had no idea.

And then there was the talent show. He wanted to do it. His mom Lori told reporters she was terrified. You know how kids can be. She’s sitting there picturing her son putting the one thing he loves most out in front of everybody, and the room going quiet. Or worse.

Just watch it. You need to see it.

That kid in the front row. Come on. The whole place lost it. And these are middle schoolers, who, let’s be honest, are not exactly famous for being kind to the one who’s a little different. They could’ve gone the other way so easily. They didn’t. They went nuts for him.

Something like 30 million people have watched this now. And everybody’s blown away by the talent, and the talent really is incredible. But that’s not the part that got me. It was the room. It was a bunch of 12-year-olds deciding, right there, to be good to somebody.

So, yes, today’s Good News Sunday is a little different. But, I don’t know. We spend a lot of time talking about everything that’s tearing us up right now, and there’s plenty of it. But the bravery and compassion and joy in this video really touched me and I just felt like I had to share it with you.

Anyway, watch the clip. Then go make somebody else watch it.

That’s good news for your Sunday.

- Adam