Positivity. That word was coined by Donnie Wahlberg. Yes, that Donnie Wahlberg. The one from New Kids on the Block. That makes it officially the only good thing to ever come from a boy band. (Except for Michael Jackson. Hey, Michael rocks! Hee hee, oooooh!)

I really like that word, positivity. It's been rolling around in my head a lot the last couple o' months. I wish I would've come up with it. Here's the definition from Dictionary.com:

"the state or character of being positive: a positivity that accepts the world as it is."

I get quite a bit o' credit for being positive. Some of it is well deserved... Some of it. It's awfully crowded in this XXL melon of mine. Whole bunches of thoughts are bouncin' around in there. An alarming amount of 'em are far removed from the spirit of positivity.

My use of positivity is somewhat like the theory of how much of our brain we use. The experts say that we only use about 10% of our brain. I think I only use about 10% of my positivity. So, if I'm more positive than the average Joe without really trying, what could I do if I tried?

I ended up testing my theory out at the 7th Annual Full Moon Tattoo & Horror Festival. I've emceed this soiree since it's inception 8 years ago. (We skipped a year.) I LOVE being around the tattoo artists. As a general rule they are kind, generous, and very positive. I believe that stems from the fact that they are doing what they love. That made this the perfect place for me to play the mad scientist of positivity.

The convention goes from Friday afternoon until Sunday evening. There's usually a smaller crowd on Friday. Saturday and Sunday are huge. I had some fun Friday, but, I was so worn out getting everything ready for the weekend that by the time I got to the convention I was pretty pooped. Saturday was my long day, but, I was finding my comedy legs as the day went on. By Sunday, I was rockin' the mic right.

The whole weekend, I'd been pushing http://www.heroesintraining.org/. We got a trickle of support on Friday night and more on Saturday. Sunday, I decided to kick my Randy-ness into over-drive. I knew that I could get more help from the people if I tried a little harder. So, I tried a lot harder. I brought my hand-bike in and put it on the stage and started preaching my favorite sermon: If You Can Dream It, You Can Do It. The donations started flowing.

Then, I got the idea to hand out business cards to the horror movie stars. They were amazing. Dee Wallace-Stone, the mom from "E.T." and "Cujo," came up with the idea of donating an autographed 8 x 10 to be auctioned for http://www.heroesintraining.org/. Adrienne Barbeau ("Maude," "The Fog," & "Escape from New York") followed suite. As did Tony Moran (The original Michael Myers in "Halloween"), George Romero (THE creator of the zombie movie.), and Michael Berryman ("The Hills Have Eyes" and "Weird Science"). Kane Hodder (Jason in four of the "Friday the 13th" movies) donated an autographed machete.

There's only one word for how I felt after that: humbled. I decided to go outside and let this feeling settle in. On my way out, one of the people attending the convention, Jon Carwile, found out that we needed a laptop and said that he'd donate one. I was on top o' the world. For every ounce of positive energy I was receiving, I was giving out pounds of it in return and people were responding in a most magical way.

I finally got a moment to myself. I was sitting there shaking, about to cry, but wrapped in the embrace of this glow that surrounded my entire being. It's like having the hand of whoever the higher power is on your shoulder to let you know that they're proud of the special things you can do. It was rapturous and I wish everyone could feel that way.

Just as some sense of normalcy was returning, I noticed a woman walking toward me with two kids in tow. There was a young girl in a stroller and a boy walkin' at his mom's side, holding her hand. When they got to me, the mother looked at her son and said, "Go ahead, Honey. Give him the money." The little man walked up to me and put three cents in my hand.

I looked at my hand and the three little pieces of copper in my palm. I, Randy Alexander, couldn't speak. The mother noticed my condition and explained why her son had done that. The boy attends a school with a 60/40 mix of able-bodied and handicapped kids. Many of his friends are handicapped and when he heard me talk about what we're trying to do with Heroes, he turned to his mom and said, "I've got some money, Mom. I want to help."

Just so you know, I've had to stop typing several times while remembering that moment. I think it took 4 Kleenex, could be more. Imagine how I responded at the time. I wept like a little girl. No... Scratch that. I wept like a man with total comprehension of how lucky he is to be who he is in this world.

It's true that my life changed for good in April 2007. Coming up with http://www.heroesintraining.org/ and the cross country trip was the best thing I've ever done. Every day, I'm shocked by what people that don't know me from Adam are willing to do to make my visions reality. All it took was putting a little positive energy out there. When I worked at it and really tried to spread my positivity, what I received in return exceeded all of my expectations.

Stan Lee, the creator of Spider-Man, addresses his readers as "true believers." Not because they believe that spandex clad titans hop from rooftop to rooftop, but, because they believe in the qualities of these characters. I may not have cool repulsor rays or a web shooter, but, I have the characteristics of those heroes. So do you. Look inside yourself. The positivity is in there. With that on your side, nothing is impossible. It makes us all super-human.

Your friendly, positive Randy-Man