on paying it forward

 

 It is said that Life imitates Art. Today, I urge you to pay attention to this and put it into action.

 "Pay It Forward." It's a wonderful movie about an 11 year old boy whose soul is lost. His father left him and his mother five months earlier. She is surviving on two jobs and dealing with her own alcoholism...her own demons of being in a sad relationship for 13 years to another alcoholic. The boy is encouraged by a classroom project to change the world. He comes up with the idea of doing something good for three people, something that takes them out of their comfort zone, in the hopes that they also will do something for three people. His idea, though good on paper, has its drawbacks. It is in the small steps, however, that it slowly implements itself. By movie's end, the boy himself dies while saving the life of a fellow classmate from a trio of bullies.

I have seen this movie several times before, but each time I view it with different eyes. I see a mother who tries...and comes up short. It is when she finally meets someone who treats her with the respect that she is deserving of that she sees the evils of her addiction and can finally set it free. I witness a child who has to be the adult in the family, yet whose fears have him confine himself to a locked room in the event that "he" comes back home. He can't bring himself to say "my father," for this man has never done anything more for the boy than to have provided the sperm needed to give him life.  Yet his desire to want to leave an imprint on the world is the thrust of this movie, one we should all emulate. He brings home a drug addicted homeless man. This sets off a domino effect of goodwill. I'd love to say that the addict instantly cured his behavior, but then that would cheapen the whole effect of the movie. What does happen, though is that his own teacher who gave the assignment can also face the demons from his past, which included an abusive father who set fire to him all because he protected his mother from yet another beating.

I marvel at the strength and wisdom of a child. In this much maligned world, it seems as if everyone is out for themselves and it's the child who pays. Yet in this film, it was a child who gave up his life to save another. This was the dam-breaking event that finally sheds light on his "pay it forward" idea. Soon folks across the country were embracing it.

When I began writing "professionally" back in 2004, it was a dream of mine to be published. When that happened, when the news reporters began to contact me, both in print and on air, I was asked over and over what I'd do with the millions I'd make. I smiled and said, "millions? I didn't care if I did or didn't make money, what I cared about more was helping people." That was it. I wanted to make a difference in the lives of others using this gift of words that I was given. Since then, I have written about child abuse, alcoholism from both sides of the coin, drug abuse as well as books just for recreational reading.
Have I made a difference...????
You tell me.

This movie debuted in 2000. It is now 2013. What have you done to change the world? What action have you taken to create goodwill, to pass the goodness around? As the boy stated in the film, it has to be something difficult, but not so much so that we shrug it off. It has to be a way to reach out to another, to make that difference. It isn't the outcome so much as the effort that we are "graded" on.
Why wait? Start today...step out of your comfort zone and "pay it forward." The ripple effect will surprise you!