Paying it Forward

Today I donated $20 to a complete stranger.

This guy, 44 years old, and his wife approached me in the Finleys parking lot in Bay Shore. They explained that their car broke down, they tried to take the train to Shirley, but the conductors wouldn't let them on because they didn't have enough money. The man explained that he had almost had the cops called on him, he seemed frightened looking at the cop car, and even promised me he'd go to the train station by saying I could drive him himself.

This seemed like a compelling story to me for some reason.

When I gave the man the money, he was very thankful and asked how he could pay me back. What I said was something I've never said before--something I've always thought of, but have never actually applied to my own life. I told him to pay it forward; not to pay me back, but to help somebody else out and pay it forward.

Now I do not know if the man and his wife actually went on a train to Shirley, or if they went around Bay Shore some more and got money for drugs or something, but I hope my insistence on paying it forward resonated with these two. I'm hoping this act of generosity, whether deserved or not, inspired these two to do some more, and to generate more generosity in a culture that is certainly lacking people helping people when they need it.

As I'm writing this, I'm feeling better about it. I don't know if I truly believe their story. I don't know what motivated me to help them. I will never know my motivation or the actual truth; I can only hope. If we can't rely on hope, what do we have? I half-jokingly said to a friend of mine tonight that I want to wait until people help me out with $20 - whether it's a dollar here, a drink there, a quarter next - just to see how long it takes to get my money back from others. Just a little experiment, even if it's a tad selfish.

I don't really know what to think about the whole situation, but how else would this world turn if people didn't try to pay it forward?

Occam's Razor

All other things being equal, the simplest solution is the best. This maxim is commonly known as Occam's razor. It seems incredibly optimistic and unheard of in our society nowadays that we would go for the simplest solution possible. Lately, people have been positing and pundits pontificating about how one person or another group of people are going to bail this country out of its economic debt. About how we are going to end our reliance on foreign oil. On how we are going to create more jobs inside this country. And who can get us out of this whole mess.

But, is there any way either of our cunning candidates or their surrogates could come up with a simple solution? There has to be an easy way of getting us out of this mess. I believe if we start simple, we can get complex later. If we can put a guided faith in accomplishing something for the common good in one person, a simple solution, then the more complex acts must soon follow.

It is simple to do what is good. It is complex to do what is evil; at least, that's the way it should be. Lately we have had a proclivity as a society to act more evilly than good, and we need to change that pattern. A minor change in how we act could create a sensation akin to a "pay it forward" movement, and in that case, we'd be moving and progressing forward, rather than behind.

Starting Fresh

When we sleep, we like to think our mind is subdued, on auto-pilot so we can rest assuredly. I think otherwise. I think my mind is crazily moving at the speed of light up to and while I sleep. I have been lying in bed lately, unable to fall asleep, with thoughts and anxieties buzzing around in my mind. It is not until there is a clear separation of mind and body that I can actually achieve sleep, as if it were an Olympic gold medal that I am trying desperately to win.

Why is the separation of mind and body so hard to achieve? There must be a spiritual way to do this. Meditation? Tai chi? I have to look into something. I think part of the problem is I am growing. My mind and my body are growing beyond the limits that my small bed inside my small room have contained me. Every year, at certain points, I get the urge to move, to disperse myself and check out other places. I think that time has come for me now. I temporarily released my diaspora among this country on my trip this summer, but the feeling of growth beyond boundaries has returned. There are aspects of my life that have to start anew.

I think we all need a fresh start every once in awhile. Without starting new, without building ourselves up from nothing, what do we do? Sit and collect dust. And for those who started from dust, collecting dust is a step back in the progression we are going in. So I think I'm going to keep moving forward and start painting myself up on a fresh canvass...until I take a break and fall asleep.