I am conscious of noticing and thanking people who are not powerful or wealthy and who work hard but who also make the world better and brighter in small but significant ways.

They make a big difference in our world; they are the best antidote to the awful news and endless whining that has come to shape our culture.

Photography has given me a way to notice and honor them, as the world around us sometimes seems angry and hateful. Everywhere I go, I run into people who are rude and angry or complaining.

They make me sick, literally.

So when I run into someone who makes the world better in my ordinary life, I feel it’s an obligation to take their picture and call them out in a good way.

I’ve been doing these portraits for a few years now, and one day I’ll put these photographs together, maybe post them all online: “True stories: small acts of kindness.”

There has been a Subway food store in my town as long as I’ve lived here, but for some reason, Maria and I never went into it to buy a sandwich or have lunch. The truth is, I’m a food snob, and I usually don’t expect much from corporate franchises.

I’ve been changing my diet recently, focusing much more on fruit and vegetables than I ever have.

So a couple of months ago, I thought I’d try Subway for take-out lunch.

Subway can afford to do their own advertising, but I liked it – the vegetables were fresh, and Tiel, who waited on me that first day, was patient, helpful, and friendly as I tried to figure out how the place worked.

She made me comfortable and didn’t rush me as I struggled through all the choices.

As it turned out, Subway is a welcome alternative that spared us from cooking lunch on hectic days, which often occur with us.

I was a bit uncomfortable, as I sometimes am when I go to new places with many choices and customers who are different from me.

I’ve felt comfortable in my little town since we moved in, but I am an outsider and know and accept it. Oddly, I’m like a refugee here. I can find a new home, but I will never be entirely born.

My grandmother, a refugee from Ukraine,  taught me how to accept this.

I liked Thiel right away.

She made me feel comfortable from the first time I saw her.

She can look tough, but she has the warmest smile.

She has already memorized what I like and don’t like and what Maria likes and doesn’t like and has the sandwiches half made before I reach the counter.

She jokes with me about Maria, who is very fussy about what she eats and texts me often what goes into her sandwiches that day.

Thiel kids me because I never order meat like everyone else and stick to veggie wraps. I’ve never seen anyone but me order an all-veggie sandwich with no meat when I was there.

Thiel has a fine sense of humor, and we click that way. She can look tough when she needs to and businesslike, but she has the warmest smile. She is a softie. She works fast and efficiently.

I like ordering sandwiches at Subway now. I’m the hunter-gatherer in our household, and I am always looking for fresh, healthy food to bring to Maria so we can sit down, eat, and get back to work.

Usually, I go in there by myself – some of the regulars kid with me now – (I think Thiel’s boyfriend was in there one-day ordering food, but I can’t be sure), but today,  Maria and I had gone into town to go to the Post Office, and Maria ordered her sandwich.

I told Thiel I needed to take her photo for this series I do on people I like who do some good. She was astonished. She doesn’t know my name or what I do or anything about me, and it was clear no one had asked to photograph her before.

This is an essential thing for me. As I’ve learned from the Army Of Good, people are good, given a chance. They are not often given an opportunity.

People like Thiel tend to be trusting – no one here has ever turned me down –  so she laughed and shrugged and smiled for me. I’m happy with the portrait; it captures her spirit. I’m grateful she agreed to it.

People like Tiel are the people who make our country and world tick. They are the unsung heroes of ordinary life. She is unlikely to be famous, and I doubt she is wealthy.

She works hard and continuously – it is not easy – and does so with grace and a smile.

She has the gift of making a customer feel like an old and vital friend in the few minutes we are together.

She qualifies easily as one of the good ones who make the world brighter. If these people ever all get together, the world would change on a dime.