Paying it Forward

It never really meant anything to me at the time, but in the past few years I'm often drawn back to the movie "Pay it Forward". What does paying it forward mean, and how can I do it?

The expression "pay it forward" is used to describe the concept of asking that a good turn be repaid by having it done to others instead. In contract law, typically there are two parties but there is the concept of third party beneficiaries. Pay it forward merely applies this contract law concept so that third party beneficiary be a stranger to the creditor. More specifically, the creditor offers the debtor the option of "paying" the debt forward by lending it to a third person instead of paying it back to the original creditor. Debt and payments can be monetary or by good deeds.

Have you ever payed it forward? I feel like I do every time I reorganize the milk fridges at Superstore. Okay, this might be a stretch, but I keep hoping that people will see that I'm trying to do a good deed by helping them better find the milk they're looking for. I'm also hoping that they see what I do then start doing it too. 

Occasionally I hear stories from my Facebook friends about good deeds. One discovered money in their mailbox. Another had their coffee paid for by another drive-thru customer. In these examples, the receivor didn't know the person that helped them out, and I think that's actually the problem with society today. Why is it so difficult to do something openly good for another person if they know you're doing it? Will they feel that they need to give us something back for it? Is it simply more rewarding if only we know we've done something but they don't know we did?

There was one occasion when I came across a couple at the grocery store when putting away my cart. They were fishing around looking for a dollar to rent the cart, but couldn't find one. Really, what's a dollar in the grand scheme of things? Obviously I gave them the cart to use. It wasn't a big deal, but they were visibly happy that I would do it. I remember thinking that more people should do little things like that, because the little things really add up in the end.

If 1 in every 10 people did something for another without needing something back, there would be over seven hundred million good deeds floating around the world. Now doesn't that sound nice? I think so. I think that the idea of Paying it Forward is important today in that you should do something for another, but they also need to remember that deed and do the same for someone else. It would just keep going and going. 

Whether or not my fridge rearrangement is considered "paying it forward", I will still consider it as my deed to society each week :)

A pi a day for Sunday: 3.14159265358979323846