Small Miracles
This story was written by CBSNews.com's Francie Grace.
There's so much going on in the world today, you may have missed it.
But there have been a few small miracles as of late and their impact is such that it could change the world.
Maybe it already has changed and someday in the distant future, historians will look back and say "That's when it happened."
Last month, the Group of Eight - a meeting of leaders of the world's wealthiest nations at which the course of numerous future events is determined, usually with very few eyes watching or caring - made the revolutionary decision to endorse a plan of debt forgiveness and economic development for many of the world's poorest nations.
Who could have thought that a plan to end extreme poverty - based on hard economic facts, but relentlessly promoted by Bono and other rock stars and celebrities, adopted by their fans and other activists around the world, would even be discussed in the hallowed halls of the G-8 - let alone adopted?
The July 7 terrorists in London did their best to steal the thunder of this amazing moment in world history but the fact is: it did happen.
It's coming in small steps - too small to notice without standing back - but it seems that those of us here on planet Earth are beginning to become aware that we're all in this thing together.
Five years ago, the Russian submarine Kursk mysteriously exploded and sat on the bottom of the Barents Sea as trapped men aboard waited for help to arrive and the world waited for Russia to accept international help on the rescue. That moment came way too late.
Maybe none of the 118 sailors on the Kursk could have been saved but we'll never know for sure. Russia then couldn't imagine that the security risk of allowing foreigners near their top secret nuclear submarine would be less important than human beings of differing nationalities and loyalties banding together to save lives.
In 2005, when the Russian Navy was again confronted with the nightmare of men stuck on the floor of the ocean, things were different.
Within hours, the call went out to other nations - the United States, Britain, Japan - with each swinging into immediate action as air grew more scarce - exactly how scarce, Russia was not sure - for seven sailors trapped in a mini-sub off Russia's far eastern Pacific coast.
"These are fellow submariners that are stuck in the bottom," said U.S. Navy deep submergence unit Commander Kent Van Horn, as the Super Scorpio, a U.S. high-powered diving vessel, was rushed onto a plane from San Diego to Russia. "That's the approach we all take."
Who would have ever thought, even a few years ago, that a problem in Russia would have Americans scrambling to the rescue? Or that Japan, which surprised us at Pearl Harbor and was devastated by our atomic bombs 60 years ago, would be a genuine ally?
And who would ever have imagined that the space program - which has its origin in the military goal of getting to the moon and elsewhere faster than Russia, to gain dominance of the skies and whatever military advantages that might convey - could ever be a matter of international cooperation?
The space shuttle astronauts on Discovery have confronted heart-stopping challenges on this mission, whose only drama was supposed to be the return of the U.S. to space.
As the astronauts have each day evaluated the condition of the spacecraft and what is to be done, the partnership with Russia has been their safety net. If at some point Discovery was judged unfit for the return flight, there was a real backup plan: waiting at the space station for a Russian spacecraft to pick them up in a few months.
Launching from Kazakhstan, no less.
A remote land few Americans have even heard of (yes, even today).
But this is the place - the Baykonur Cosmodrome, to be exact - from which a Russian spacecraft would be launched to help Discovery's international crew, if necessary.
It's incredible.
By Francie Grace