Can a single kindly gesture help change the world? I became a believer after seeing the movie Pay It Forward. One act of kindness can send ripples across the world, although we may never see the end results of something that is seemingly inconsequential. Consider the following.
1) The door is held open for a man walking out of a bank. Because he doesn’t have to push on the bronze door plate, his eyes fall on a section of the sidewalk where he normally wouldn’t have looked. He sees a one dollar coin and figures it’s his lucky day.
1) The door is held open for a man walking out of a bank. Because he doesn’t have to push on the bronze door plate, his eyes fall on a section of the sidewalk where he normally wouldn’t have looked. He sees a one dollar coin and figures it’s his lucky day.
2) Since it’s his lucky day, he buys a lottery ticket. He doesn’t win the jackpot, but does have enough winning numbers to snag $500.
3) He then visits his unemployed niece, who is having trouble meeting her mortgage payments. Foreclosure looms. “What the hell,” he figures. He gives his niece the five hundred bucks.
4) The sheriff arrives with a FORECLOSED sign but doesn’t put it in the niece’s front yard since she shows him a receipt from her bank, where the loan officer says her payment has earned her another month.
5) The sheriff looks in the distance and says, “Technically, I’m still supposed to put this sign up, but let’s pretend I never got the order to come out here today. Paperwork is always getting lost or delayed, right?.” He pauses. “Say, you interested in bein’ a secretary at my brother’s tile and flooring store?”
6) She sure is, and the sheriff’s brother loans her enough money to finish catching up on her mortgage payments, agreeing to withhold a little of her paycheck every month until he is repaid for the loan. The brother is a nice guy, the salt of the earth.
7) Because she doesn’t have to move, the niece is able to keep her son in the same high school he has been attending, where the boy has always excelled. Because his grades stay high, he gets a scholarship and goes to college. Eventually, he becomes a doctor.
A fairy tale? Naïve? Can someone holding a door open at a bank result in someone going to medical school? All I know is that when money was tight a few years back, I got a check from a stranger, money that saved my house and enabled me to keep custody of my son, who is now majoring in classical guitar.
If you want to know more about the small things you can do to change the world, I encourage you to visit Random Acts of Kindness Foundation and subscribe to its newsletter, which is full of inspiring stories. They also have a message board with great ideas on how you can make a difference.
Picture: Public Domain
4 comments:
FYI, I responded to your query regarding my art in my comments. Didn't get your "P.S." until I'd answered. *L*
BTW, I love this post. Good stuff!
Hi Billy How great that a stranger changed your life for the good. This is a very interesting subject and I think it is the essence of life. Whatever you do you can make somebody's day with a hand on the shoulder, a smile, a kind word. People are often more short of these things in western society than money.
It makes you connect and become one with the world.
It is however not easy to always put self absorbsion aside but we are all developing.
I will check out the website thanks
Great post.
There's a consequence to every action, even the most miniscule.
I touched upon the opposite effect a while ago in a post where I talked about a woman had been unnecessarily rude to a bus driver. What if he went home and snapped at his wife, who took it out on the kids etc etc.
Will check out the website:-)
Lana, thanks and I will check out more of your art. I really like it, and it is, as you point out, affordable. A real find! -:) Glad you stopped by.
Marja, yes it is the essence of life, I believe. And you're right--it's hard sometimes because we are all still evolving. I pass up so many opportunities every day when I think back at bedtime. I recall reading that people who had had an NDE report that smiles and small acts are the more worthwhile things we do here on earth.
Lane, how true. The door swings both ways. An unkind act sends out ripples too. Sometimes when I think of how grumpy I was on certain days or how I snapped at someone, I think back and hope I didn't send out too much bad karma.
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