Paying it forward

This morning I was reading a magazine article about random acts of kindness. Apparently someone at a Starbucks in Florida bought coffee for the car behind him in an effort to curtail his anger based on an impatient outburst of horn honking from the drive of that vehicle. He wanted to change his attitude of anger to that of compassion. The driver of that car was so moved, that he did the same to the car behind him. This continued for the entire day. Car after car went through the drive thru window and offered to purchase the coffee of the car behind them.

This is a very simple philosophy: pay it forward. Someone does something for you; you reciprocate by doing something for someone else. Imagine the affect this could have on the world if we all practiced this principle. I've been the recipient of some of those random acts of kindness and I can tell you that it motivated me to do the same. We can see this principle in the Barry community: sharing photos, memorabilia, tapings of television appearances, and even memories. And recently we saw Barry "pay it forward" with a donation to Palm Springs music programs.

It would be great if we could all change our philosophy: instead of getting even, let's pay it forward. By doing this, we can change the world, one act of random kindness at a time.

Paying it forward,
Texas Fan