Lava's Better Than Pigeons

The choice of your example matters so much in whether this story is uplifting or not. Having a small number of building blocks, but lots of different ways to assemble them does allow you to introduce complexity in the arrangement. The Kelly-ness is really just how those same pieces are put together and you could have put them together to make somebody else. Lava's definitely hotter than pigeons. That's the measure for goodness in your life.