It's almost the end of Pride Month, but guess what? Being your true self is something to celebrate every day. I love these beautiful CNN portraits of LGBTQ+ people living joyfully and authentically. These kinds of moments aren't about the flashy parades or parties or rainbow flags. They're just everyday life. Pride shouldn't be confined to one month -- and neither should our efforts to ensure everyone can live and love in peace.

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Our favorites this week

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

He's a trooper!
When Richard Scott William Hutchinson came into the world last year, doctors at Children's Minnesota Hospital in Minneapolis, Minnesota gave him a zero percent chance of survival. The infant was born five months premature -- recognized by Guinness as the world's most premature baby. He weighed just 11.9 ounces and was so tiny, he could fit in the palm of his parents' hands. But inside his little body beat the heart of a fighter. After six months in the hospital, Richard was discharged from the NICU. This June, he celebrated his first birthday as a thriving, smiling little boy.

Bottled treasure
Boat captain Jennifer Dowker was cleaning the bottom of her glass-bottomed boat on the Cheboygan River in Michigan when an old-fashioned green bottle caught her eye. She thought it would just be a cool find, until she saw a piece of paper carefully rolled up inside. Sure enough, it was a note, written all the way back in November of 1926: "Will the person who finds this bottle return this paper to George Morrow Cheboygan, Michigan and tell where it was found?" Dowker's first mate put the message on Facebook. Amazingly, a woman named Michele Primeau, who doesn't even use Facebook, was alerted to the post. She recognized the handwriting as her father's. Morrow passed away in 1995, but Primeau says the bottle brought back a lot of good memories -- especially since it all happened on Father's Day weekend.

A group effort
Two new gaseous planets were just discovered orbiting a sun-like star some 352 light-years away from Earth. But what's really cool is that a group of citizen scientists are among those to thank for the find. They were able to help discover these planets by participating in Planet Hunters TESS, a NASA-funded project that brings together about 29,000 space lovers from around the globe. Volunteers use publicly available data to search through graphs that showcase the brightness of stars observed by NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite. These graphs are called light curves, and if any of these stars show a dip in brightness, it could suggest that a planet has passed in front of the star during orbit. So far, the mission team has identified more than 100 exoplanets.

Raise a glass to...

Jonathan Bauer, who jumped off a bridge in Ocean City, Maryland last month to save a toddler who had fallen into the bay after a multi-vehicle crash. Bauer has been hailed a hero, and was recently selected to ride in the back seat of an F-16 as part of the Air Force Thunderbirds' "Hometown Hero" program. "His selfless act shows the best America has to offer," the Thunderbirds posted on Instagram. Bauer and his family were also named honorary members of the Ocean City Fire Department.

You gotta see this

At first glance, this painting appears like any other priceless masterpiece. But "The Night Watch," by Dutch master Rembrandt, is now being displayed with a little AI enhancement. Rembrandt finished the large canvas, which portrays the captain of an Amsterdam city militia ordering his men into action, in 1642, but strips were cut off the sides of the painting during a move in 1715. Using artificial intelligence technology (and the work of another artist who made a copy of the work at the time), restorers and scientists were able to once again expand the painting in an approximation of Rembrandt's style. Look on the sides of the painting above, and you can see the denotation between Rembrandt's work and the computer-generated portions. "It's never the real thing," Rijksmuseum director Taco Dibbits said."But I think it gives you different insight into the composition."

Heroes among us

CNN Hero Dr. Ala Stanford is on a mission to bring Covid-19 vaccines to some of Philadelphia's most vulnerable citizens. Since April 2020, her group, the Black Doctors Covid-19 Consortium, has brought testing and vaccines to more than 75,000 residents of Philadelphia's minority neighborhoods. (It's also been praised by the CDC as a model to reduce health care inequality.) Stanford, a pediatric surgeon, was born to teen parents in north Philadelphia and her family often struggled to make ends meet. She knows what it's like, and she knows what underserved residents in her city need. In fact, Stanford's efforts have brought her such acclaim that she's now under consideration to be the city's next health commissioner. (Also, as someone who grew up in the mid-Atlantic, seeing an acclaimed surgeon in a shirt that says "jawn" really makes me smile.)

Wanna get away?

Something major is happening in Rome. For the first time in 2,000 years, tourists will be able to explore the subterranean levels of the Colosseum. These corridors and archways are where gladiators and animals would wait before being sent to the upper arena. The historic opening is part of a decades-long total restoration of the famed site. Archaeologists, restorers, engineers and architects are among the experts who worked to bring the landmark as close to its original state as possible. The team used photographic surveys, surface mapping, and the slow and meticulous job of washing away centuries of dirt. A reminder that the Colosseum was built in 72 BCE, so that's a lot of dirt.

Rec of the week

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