I own a rather large and diverse collection of DVD’s that have been inspirational to me over the years. One of those happens to be a movie entitled “Pay It Forward”, which stars Kevin Spacey (as Eugene) and a young Haley Joel Osment (as Trevor). The movie’s concept is simple. Trevor is given a class assignment by his social studies teacher, Eugene, to come up with a plan to change the world through direct action. On his way home from school one day, Trevor befriends a homeless man named Jerry, who is played by Jim Caviezel. Through that interaction, Trevor manifests the idea to “pay it forward” by doing a good deed for three people, who in turn must do good deeds for three other people, thus creating a charitable pyramid scheme. The rest of the movie revolves around Trevor’s execution of this plan and the interconnectivity to how it all eventually comes together. Quite frankly, our world desperately needs something like Trevor’s plan to be implemented immediately.
Anger and self-centeredness appears to be on the rise everywhere in our world these days. There is major unrest in Egypt and many unnecessary deaths occurring there. It seems as if people are “going postal” daily and murdering too many innocent lives. And even on a smaller level, I observe many people these days focusing solely on their own needs, wants, and desires, and caring less about the rest of the state of the world. It’s sad and unfortunate that this is happening but it doesn’t have to be. Each of us have the power to turn it around and bring more light and love on this planet by doing our own actions of “paying it forward”.
There are so many opportunities for doing this and yet too many of us rarely make a single attempt to move in this direction. Instead, people appear to be doing the exact opposite like throwing trash out car windows or leaving it behind for someone else to take care of in public places. There’s those who are constantly cutting others off or not let others in on roads that they’re driving in. Some aren’t doing an action as simple as holding a door open for someone following right behind themselves. Others watch as people are short on change or a few dollars to make a purchase in front of them when they have the amount in their own pocket to contribute. All of this is just plain selfishness and self-centeredness. We let our brains tell us we don’t have the time, money, or energy to help out or we allow our constant state of stress and anger to leave us in the state of mind to not giving a crap about anyone else.
Ironically, all of this can be turned around in a millisecond by doing a few random acts of kindness every single day. They don’t have to be as pronounced as Trevor did in Pay It Forward either. It can be as simple as cleaning up that trash left behind by someone else. This is one of the things I try to do quite often, such as in a public bathroom, when I see paper towels strewn across the floor, I take the time to clean the mess up. People notice these types of actions and it affects their own hearts, minds, and souls where it often inspires them to doing the exact same thing.
Try doing anything that is a random act of kindness. Buy a person’s coffee in front or behind you in a line that you are waiting in, even if you only have a small amount of money on you. Place that loose change or even a dollar or two in that homeless person’s cup regardless of what you think about them. Allow a person in a store to go ahead of you in a line even when you’re brain tells you that your in a rush. Take the time to ask someone crying near you, even if you don’t know them, if they need any help or even better, a hug. What this world truly needs is for all of us to begin paying it forward by doing things like this. Every kind act that any of us ever do is always being noticed regardless if we are seeing it or not. I believe God constantly keeps a watchful eye out for things things like this and puts things along our path all the time that could use our charity.
I encourage any of you reading this to take a moment, breathe, and try to do one random act of kindness today that can begin your own path of paying it forward. Trevor believed and committed deeply in his soul to his quest in doing so, and you can to. Begin to do your own version of paying it forward and not only will you feel better, but the world will move one step closer to being a more loving and peaceful place to exist in.
Peace, love, light, and joy,
Andrew Arthur Dawson
Thanks again, Andrew!