On Good News on The Current, we share stories every Monday about how music has the power to change the world, change your perspective, or influence us, or motivate us into doing something positive ... something for the better. 

And tonight’s powerful Good News Story comes from listener Justin. 

Justin writes:

“I lost two friends when the World Trade Center came down. I walked home from my Wall Street job leaving tracks in the falling dust that smelled like burnt plastic and tasted like iron.

“I had nightmares and I missed my friends. I started volunteering at the NYU Emergency Department four hours a week. I just wanted to talk to people outside of work, get my head together and maybe help a little.

“I witnessed things most people would consider heroic, but for these people, it's just what they do. They help people — against a world that doesn't care and a system set up to fail. They fought to keep people alive, comfort them when they're scared, ease pain, give them a sandwich. They didn't care about your income or your skin color or your politics. They just help.  

“On my way home on the subway one night, I was listening to the radio and Elton John's ‘Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters’ came on. The song is about his experience in New York and the people he met there. I remember hearing him sing, ‘I thank the Lord there's people out there like you,’ and all I could think about were the techs and nurses and doctors I saw performing unwitnessed acts of compassion for hours a week.

“I decided to make a change in my life. I went back to undergrad a few months later and, after some work, started medical school at 37. I've been an emergency doctor now for 12 years. It's quite a thing. I often look around at my colleagues as they run to help strangers and think, ‘I thank the Lord there's people out there like you.’ ”

So here it is, the the song that changed Justin’s life, Elton John’s “Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters” on Good News on The Current.

If you have a story of how music changed the world or even your world for the better, maybe inspired a positive action or change, or did something simply good, we want to hear it, please share your good news at ajaffer@mpr.org. And thank you to Justin for sharing your story. It’s truly moving and inspiring.