Pay it forward...

I had the opportunity to watch a few minutes of the movie Pay it Forward a couple months ago at work. Unfortunately I had to work and wasn't able to watch it. I came home this evening after a long week at work and looking forward to a 3 day weekend. My husband has to work the closing shift so he won't be home til late. I knew that I had to entertain myself for a few more hours. I turned the TV on and lucked out. Pay it forward was starting in a few minutes. How exciting. I have always wanted to see this movie. I actually had a pretty early lesson in the whole idea of paying it forward. It started with my grandma. I have always looked up to her as a role model and there is one thing in specific that really sticks out in my mind. There are a lot of toll bridges in the bay area where I am from and I remember driving with her up to her house in the mountains and us going over one of these bridges. She pulled up to the toll booth and paid her $2 and then she handed the attendant another $2 and said that it was for the car behind us. I think I was about 7 and I remember asking her "grandma do you know those people?" She simply stated no she didn't but that it was her random act of kindness for the day. I had a hard time understanding this. Why would she give her money to a complete stranger. She taught me about doing good deeds, the ones that were anonymous and when no one was looking. How many of us do good deeds only to gain some form of recognition? or to get something in return? I know that I have. How many of us do them with no alterior motives other than to help another person. The ones where no one is watching and no one will find out. Those are the ones that matter, those are the honest ones. My grandma taught me about "what goes around, comes around". It reminds me of some of the lyrics from a song by Vitamin C called Smile. " you get what you give in this life that we live, and all that you do will come back to you". It may not be right away and you may never really notice, but I do believe that that is true. I had someone ask me before, "why bother? Not everyone thinks like you, they won't care". Well you know what, I don't care. I don't care if they won't appreciate it, or if it will go unnoticed, at the end of the day I know i did right and that is all that matters. You need to always stand true to your beliefs no matter what others may say or do. My grandma sends out cards...lot's and lot's of cards. I get one about every month for every holiday. I opened one that I got from saint patricks day and found a ribbon.

There she goes again. Always sending the message of kindness. Why don't more people think this way? I have put a lot of thought into what I can do and maybe that is my problem. You just have to act. You don't have to wait for the right moment or right opportunity. The Assignment in the movie was to "Think of an idea to change our world-Then put it into action". The young boy came up with this simple idea to pay it forward. It means to help another person with something they cannot do on their own, in the hopes that they will in turn help 3 people in the same way. The ripple effect starts and before you know it there are people all over doing good deeds. It is an extreme act of faith in the goodness of people. Like I said yesterday, I do believe that all people have some good in them. It could be something as simple as forgivness as we saw with Helen Hunt's character forgiving her mom for her horrific childhood and her mothers past mistakes. Or something a little bigger like giving a jaguar car to a stranger who has had his smashed. There is no small favor. All acts of kindness are huge to the person who receives them. The problem is that some people are so caught in their own lives that they ignore the needs of others. They don't pay attention to what really goes on around them. Some people are too scared. They get so used to things the way they are and they give up. They give up on others. This is a sick world we live in and sometimes we may try to help people who don't want out help. I know that I deal with that on a daily basis. But that doesn't mean that you give up. If you can reach one in one hundred then it was all worth it. There are people who say that no good deed goes unpunished. I am willing to take that chance. I know that there is a time and a place and in the case of pay it forward the poor boy paid the ultimate price. You do have to be careful in this world, but don't let your fear prevent you from seeing the beauty in others.