Paying It Forward

I've never seen the movie, Pay It Forward, but I have heard references to it quite often since I moved to Syracuse. The moral of the movie is by choosing to do good for three people, and they, in return, will do good for three people, and then the goodness will spread.

I thought about this today when I stopped by a bookstore. Casey and Dave had bought me a gift card and I knew how I wanted it to be spent. One was to by a young man the book, THE BLIND SIDE, by Michael Lewis. After watching it, I knew he needed to read it (he made this an important point). The other was to make Mike Lupica come to life. I met him at Mark's Hoops4Hope fundraiser in Long Island and knew he wrote books for young adults. I found his book, HEAT, about a young Cuban man who pitches for a baseball team, but who lives in fear of foster families and deportation. I bought two copies of this book to read. One is for me and the other is for a young man from Somalia who is a first-year pitcher for a JV team. He likes to read, he says, but the books at school don't appeal to him. Earlier, I gave him a book on Mohammed Ali and he loved it.

So, paying it forward is finding a need and trying to fill it. It can be a massage, a letter, a dinner, or even a new rug with furniture (hint hint, BUTCH). The karma goes forth in stereo.