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by Catherine Ryan Hyde
Following on the heels of her critically acclaimed debut novel, Funerals For Horses (1997), Catherine Ryan Hyde has crafted another affecting tale. It is one sown with promise and the innate goodness of humankind.
Can our world be changed for the better? Twelve-year-old Trevor McKinney thinks that it can. Cynicism may dismiss this belief as implausible, lachrymose, but Ms. Hyde's meticulously wrought, restrained prose keeps sentimentality at bay, while at the same time imbuing Pay It Forward with a transcendent power to move.
There is aught in Trevor's small town California background to explain his response when a social studies teacher challenges students to ""Think of an idea for world change, and put it into action." The boy devises an ingenious but simple scheme - pay it forward.
In Trevor's words: "You see, I do something real good for three people. And then when they ask how they can pay it back, I say they have to pay it forward. To three more people. Each. So nine people get helped. Then those people have to do twenty-seven....Then it sort of spreads out, see. To eighty-one. Then two hundred forty-three. Then seven hundred twenty-nine. Then two thousand, one hundred eighty-seven. See how big it gets?"
Related in alternating narrative voices Pay It Forward is resonate with heart wrenching struggle and hard won achievement, greed and largesse, hope and disappointment, courage and fear - all the stuff of which human life is made. It suggests a utopia impossible to bring into existence, a premise far too chimerical to succeed. Or, is it? Imaginatively conceived, meticulously rendered, Pay It Forward shores belief and nourishes hope.
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Index of More Articles about Lake Tahoe
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Later, Emerson wrote in his essay “Compensation”: “In the order of nature we cannot render benefits to those from whom we receive them, or only seldom. But the benefit we receive must be rendered again, line for line, deed for deed, cent for cent, to somebody.”
In 1944, a spokesperson for Alcoholics Anonymous said in the Christian Science Monitor: “You can’t pay anyone back for what has happened to you, so you try to find someone you can pay forward.”
In 1951, the term was popularized by Robert A. Heinlein in his book Between Planets. Moreover, he preached and practiced this principle in his own life, as does the Heinlein Society, a humanitarian organization later founded in his name. In 2000, Catherine Ryan Hyde’s novel Pay It Forward was published and adapted into a Warner Brothers film with the same title.
This led to the creation of the Pay It Forward Foundation, which focuses on bringing the idea to school age children, parents and educators.
Finally, many people are finding creative ways in daily life to practice this form of generosity and service. For example, people have been known to pay bridge tolls for drivers behind them.
Others pay the bill for diners in a restaurant. Some pay for the education of others’ children, asking only that when the children grow up and begin working, they try to do something similar for the next generation. The possibilities are endless, and We encourage you, colleagues and students to engage in such “experiments of the Heart.”
This Program was developed by the Just Wait Foundation a 501 (c)(3) nonprofit corporation to prevent drug, alcohol, and tobacco problems among teenagers. The Foundation provides one-year scholarships (two semesters) at a Community College or $1000 award to teens that completes the 4 year Just Wait Teen™ Positive Youth Development Program, obtains a GED, or graduates from high school - alcohol, tobacco, and drug free. The Just Wait Foundation has arranged to use of 80 acres to raise fruit and vegetables to finance the scholarships
We offer free training for any person or group that wants to start this program in their community.
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Index of Articles about Kindness & Paying it Forward
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