| PAY IT FORWARD
I hardly ever purchase videos, figuring I can always rent any movie I
want to see a second time and in the process save storage space. But that
changed with Pay It Forward.
Pay It Forward is a movie that teaches an often repeated but seldom
practiced message: if you see something wrong with the world you live in,
don’t complain or become part of the problem, begin to change it. The
same message is found in Michael Jackson’s Man in the Mirror. In
Pay It Forward an 11-year-old takes the class challenge of developing an
idea for making the world a better place and comes up with the concept of
paying for our future benefits by giving like benefits to others now,
paying it forward. The giver would do someone a favor-- something really
big, that they could not do for themselves, and instead of paying back the
favor, the beneficiary would do similar favors for three other people with
the same conditions for each. Good deeds would multiply exponentially, and
the world would be better. Pay It Forward stars Haley Joel Osment as Trevor, the 11-year- old with
the idea and Kevin Spacey as the teacher making the challenge and planting
the seed. You’ve probably already seen it so I am not spoiling anything by
telling you that Trevor’s idea was recognized by his classmates as the best
submitted, but his implementation ends tragically when he befriends another
student under physical attack. The film ends with Trevor’s idea taking route all over his city and
around the world as the news of his death emerges. It is almost as though
good comes from his death. A great movie with a great and uncomplicated message. Such a clear and
simple solution, it’s a wonder it has not been identified and applied on a
grand scale? It can only be the fear of unrequited time and effort that
keeps us from doing the good we know to do, making the investment in others
we know we should? |
