Archive for March 12, 2008

Pay it Forward

{ March 12, 2008 @ 12:48 pm } · { Charity, Driving, Life, Love, Opinion, Personal, Thoughts, Tips, movie }
{ Tags: , , , , , } · { Comments (1) }

After seeing a lot of people show interest in my blog, “A$$hole Drivers in Las Vegas,” I felt compelled to tackle another topic I try to enforce when I’m behind the wheel.

Remember the movie “Pay it Forward?” The idea behind the film was that if you showed a genuine act of kindness to a stranger, they would act on your good deed by doing something positive for the next person. Hence, pay it forward.

When I’m driving, I try to have common courtesy for my fellow drivers. I’ll do something as simple as let a driver into my lane if their blinker has been on and other drivers refuse to let them in front of them. I’ll wave to a driver letting them know they can ease out of a parking lot into my lane when they need to get back on the road. I use my blinker. I don’t honk at people (unless they’ve fallen asleep and the light turns green)! I wave and mouth “thanks” when someone let’s me into their lane. I follow the speed limit. I believe that if I extend one act of kindness on the roads, where people often let their temper get the best of them, they may turn around and let the next driver ahead of them.

While we’re on the topic of paying it forward… think about all of the wonderful things that could come back to you two-fold if you used this simple gesture in other aspects of your life.

If you help a friend move or plan their wedding… whatever… they will likely return the favor when you need help. Or, they may help someone else in need. Give a homeless person a quarter sitting in your car’s cup-holder. That quarter just may be what changes their bad luck. Volunteer with a charity and you may find that someone you gave your time to becomes a spokesperson for the organization.

If someone did you a favor - something big, something you couldn’t do on your own - and instead of paying it back, you paid it forward to three people, and the next day, they each paid it forward to three more, and the day after that, those 27 people each paid it forward to another three, and each day everyone in turn paid it forward to three more people… in two weeks that comes to 4,782,969 people.  ~Pay it Forward

And, if you really want to get behind this positive movement, check out the Pay it Forward Foundation. Yes, such a thing really exists!