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 June 17, 2023

Some friends and I were recently watching an interesting docuseries called "Human Playground" that examines how humans have connected with the world and each other through play. It led to a really interesting conversation about what the concept of "play" means to us, especially as adults. Does it need a goal? Can it be done alone? Is it a game? A hobby? While playing make-believe mermaids might have been fun in kindergarten, how can adults capture that same spirit through, well, more sophisticated ways? Does it need to be sophisticated at all? (Can overanalyzing be a form of play, because if so, we're doing it really well!) Here, a psychology expert gives some ideas on how to find joy through play. What, exactly, that play looks like is up to you.

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Our favorites this week

Get going with some of our most popular good news stories of the week

Wild survival
Milagro: It's the Spanish word for miracle, and there's no better word to describe the recent discovery of four children who were thought to be lost forever in the Amazon rainforest. The brothers and sisters wandered the forest for 40 days after a plane they were flying in crashed, killing the three adults on board. The search for them riveted people all over the world. Indigenous trackers worked side by side with Columbian military members in hopes of what, day by day, seemed an impossible outcome. And yet, led by their resourceful 13-year-old sister, the four children managed to survive the danger-infested jungle. They said they hid in trees to keep away from predators and ate cassava flour they salvaged from the plane. Manuel Ranoque, the father of the two youngest children, said his resilient family was also helped by their connection to the world around them. "They survived with the powers of the grandpas, a spiritual sustenance. We are the children of nature, so we respect nature … and in her safety, we can rest.”

Read the whole story here. 

A winning premonition
Don't you love it when things just ... fit together? Pro golfer Rickie Fowler and emerging amateur Michael Brennan shared one of those full-circle moments on the green at this year's US Open. You see, Brennan always look up to Fowler, so much that he dressed up as the floppy-haired golf champ for Halloween 11 years ago. A picture of the getup found its way to Fowler, who signed it with a message: "Look forward to playing a practice round with you at the 2025 US Open!" Earlier this month,  Brennan navigated a sudden-death final qualifying playoff to stamp his ticket to the major, and Fowler came through. He invited Brennan to join him for a practice round, and for a little while, time folded in on itself. "That's really what it's all about, being in a position to make a positive impact on people's lives," Fowler said. "To see someone who looked up to me and now has passed me -- he's a bit taller than me -- to be playing a US Open is really cool." 

Read the whole story here. 

Building a richer future
When it comes to money, you don't know what you don't know. That's why two lifelong friends from Atlanta are on a quest to educate Black Americans on financial literacy using social media, a podcast, and a YouTube series that provide information on investing, real estate, budgeting, entrepreneurship and trends in the financial world. Rashal Bilal and Troy Millings started their platform "Earn Your Leisure" to address the generational wealth gap. According to the Brookings Institute, the median wealth of a White household is 7.8 times more than the average Black household, and there's also a huge disparity in home ownership. The pair make a practice of interviewing successful Black businesspeople, like rapper 2 Chains, to get their lessons on creating and managing wealth. They're also working with New York City Public Schools to introduce a financial literacy class that will be offered as an elective.

Read the whole story here. 

You gotta see this

It's probably not cool for me, a professional content producer, to say I don't love watching videos. I'm a word person -- go figure! But, now and then you have to make an exception. In April, Dan "Red" Jones of Florida's Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office found himself unexpectedly going from deputy to midwife when he helped deliver a baby on the side of the road. A driver had approached Jones during an unrelated traffic stop and asked for an escort to the hospital for his wife who was in labor. However, the baby just couldn't wait. Intense body cam footage shows Jones and the (equally heroic) mother, Lexela Nolasco, working together to safely deliver her healthy baby girl. The joyous parents got to sit down with Jones after their ordeal and even asked him to be their daughter's godfather. Watch the amazing story here. 

Heroes among us

Detroit-area native and CNN Hero Mama Shu is well-acquainted with grief. After losing two sons, one to a hit-and-run and the other to gun violence, she somehow managed to build something beautiful out of her pain. Her neighborhood of Highland Park, Michigan, has been profoundly affected by economic woes. Driving around the places she knew, thinking about her sons, she had dreams of what the community could become. “I wanted to live in a beautiful city. I wanted flowers. I wanted thriving businesses," she said. "I felt that that is what we deserved.” In 2016, Mama Shu created the Avalon Village, a nonprofit with the mission of revitalizing a residential street in the area and creating a safe and nurturing space for the entire community. Today, she and her organization own 45 lots of land across three blocks. The biggest project on the block to date has been fully refurbishing one of the abandoned houses into an after-school hub for children called The Homework House. 

Read the whole story here. 

Wanna get away?

The Isle of Islay, off the west coast of Scotland, is a whisky lovers' paradise. The wild, rain-lashed island attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors from all over the world hoping to get a taste of some of the industry's most valued -- and valuable -- spirits. The island's handful of distilleries use traditional methods, and distillers say the taste of an Islay single-malt is as unique to the land as the chilled sea breezes and loamy peat bogs, which are harvested to fuel the kilns that give the whisky its smoky, earthy flavor. Whisky is also a big part of Scotland's economy. More than £6 billion-worth ($7.5 billion) of Scotch whisky was sold across 174 international markets last year.

Read the whole story here. 

Rec of the week

Brought to you by CNN Underscored

Shameless animal video

There's always time for cute animal videos. That time is now.

The ferret is one of those animals that feels like the first draft of, I don't know, a different animal that makes more sense. Then again, they certainly have the whole "play" thing down. (Click here to view) 

Made with love by CNN's 5 Things team. 

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