Pay it forward

I recently saw the movie "Pay it Forward," and it's a nice movie because of the whole idea of it. It's this sort of think global, act local benevolent movement that's so in sync with the pacifist vegetarian whole grain view of the world. It's practically noble. The twist at the end is suitably cheesy and ruins the movie with its needless move for extra sympathy. Still it was a noble movie that had this bold vision of the bettering of humanity, one person at a time.

However, I think that the movie had it wrong. It's certainly noble to pay it forward, to do good deeds for others and certainly, the world would be a better place if we did that. I think that the true problem with life is that we too often pass on the shit in our lives. We have a terrible day at work, so we cut someone off on the highway, and that guy is rude to the drive thru cashier, who comes home angry to his girlfriend, whom he yells at, and she in turn goes to work the next day and ruins your day all over again.

The problem, you see, isn't with paying good deeds forward. It's that we've got to stop passing on the bad stuff too.