A month ago Survive 365 sent out a National event on facebook and titled it “Pay it Forward Day” (based loosely from the Hit Movie with the same name). The purpose was to have this one day where a group of people would collectively focus on doing a positive selfless deed for some unsuspecting person.
The good news was, we had over 400 people around the United States who committed to the collective day of giving!!!
The bad news was some people just did not get it!
To my surprise….I got a few push backs from several people!?? Comments ranged from “I don’t need to participate because everyday is Pay it Forward Day for me"…to "I would participate but I’ll be at work that day!??" HUH????
Who? ...in their right mind could say that they focus everyday on giving to others without expecting something back….(now let’s see…Mother Theresa & Jesus) but both of them are no longer with us (figuratively speaking of course!). Obviously, the point was totally missed!!!! If the American Cancer Society sponsored a walk for Cancer, it does not imply that this is the only day they give a damn about finding a cure for Cancer. It’s just one day out of “365” (no pun intended) where a group of supporters show up and represent! Oh and by the way…can you not do a good deed for someone at work? God knows they probably needed it!
Ok here’s the best one yet…Someone argued that they don’t need to spotlight their good deeds. If that person would have taken just a moment to read the description for the cause they would have noted that Absolutely No One was to post their “Pay It Forward”…reading is still fundamental! :-)
However (back to the positive), it was so wonderful knowing there were over 400 people around the states(27 states represented) that received a gift of giving and perhaps they now may have enough hope to carry on. The point of the event was due to all the cynicism in the world that there’s no one left who cares. We wanted to get people back focused on others instead of “self”. Of course we are in an economic recession. Anytime you look on T.V. to see 30,000 people standing in 100 degree weather just to snatch an application from police like its water in Haiti after the Earthquake, you’ve got a problem. If you’re wondering... this happened in East Point, Ga. just this week. However, if you view the footage it appeared that they were in a third world country. (Just to get on a 'waiting list' for subsidized housing.)
Lastly, I read a wonderful story that garners repeating. A woman in New York gave a homeless man her credit card after the man asked for change. The woman (a corp. exec) wanted to “Pay It Forward” and did what most of us wouldn’t do if our lives depended on it. She gave him her American Express Card. The homeless man took the card, bought a few things (totaling only $25.00) and brought her the card back to her where she was
***Here’s my personal thanks to everyone who participated last month; and yes, I hope you do it on a more consistent basis…I APPLAUD YOU ALL…
Milano Flascucci~
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