The power of kindness

Pay It Forward is my favorite movie. Set in Las Vegas, the story centers on an 11-year-old boy named Trevor McKinney (Haley Joel Osment) and how he responds positively to a school assignment that leads him to conceive a unique way to express kindness. Helping him enact his idea are his alcoholic but hardworking single mother, Arlene McKinney (Helen Hunt) and his Social Studies teacher who’s content merely doing his daily routine, Mr. Eugene Simonet (Kevin Spacey).

On the first day of classes, Mr. Simonet gives an assignment to his pupils: "Think of an idea to change the world — and put it into action." The statement makes the whole class think, especially Trevor, who searches for an answer. What he comes up with is to "pay it forward" — if someone does you good, instead of paying that person back, you pay it forward to three other people, who, in turn, will do the same thing to three others and so on and so forth.

Trevor makes three unsuccessful though worthy attempts to put his idea into action. First, he brings home a junkie named Jerry, who he cares for and considers as part of his family. The man is sent away when Arlene learns about him. The second is when Trevor attempts to link Mr. Simonet to his mother. But his father unexpectedly arrives after being away for quite some time. Thus, Mr. Simonet steps out of the game. (Trevor’s plan to link his teacher with his mother tickled my fancy because truth is, I’m searching for a man to link with my sister. So far, I haven’t found one yet but I have a prospect who I hope will propose to her. She felt sorry for me and told me that she isn’t prepared for another serious relationship. Fine, I thought.) Finally, Trevor attempts to keep his schoolmate Adam from being beaten up by bullies, but he is afraid he will get hurt, too. Even so, Trevor doesn’t know that his idea has, in fact, spread out from Las Vegas.

In Los Angeles, Chris, a media man, has experienced extraordinary kindness from a lawyer who gives him his new Jaguar when, in a crime scene, his car gets busted by an escaping criminal. Motivated by curiosity, Chris begins his research by interviewing people, eventually finding out that it was Trevor who had set off the chain of events.

As everything goes well, the bullies beat up Adam once again. Trevor doesn’t hesitate to help him. But one of the bullies is enraged and stabs Trevor on the spot. Life’s indeed short for good people like Trevor. Although he is rushed to the hospital, he dies.

The movie starts to end when people go to Trevor’s place holding lighted candles and offering flowers. The film’s tear-jerking song, Calling All Angels moved me to tears. While I was crying, a lesson started to sink in. As a Filipino steeped in the tradition of paying back (utang na loob), I have always done good deeds for as long as I can remember and it’s quite hard for me to change my habits. But Trevor touched me when, while helping Mr. Simonet, he learns that people must know how to welcome change to make the world a better place. Subsequently, I welcomed change. I learned to render my service frequently, generously and unconditionally to others, letting them pay my good deeds forward, rather than paying them back to me. Besides, I am also inspired by what Albert Schweitzer said: "Constant kindness can accomplish much. As the sun makes ice melt, kindness causes misunderstanding, mistrust, and hostility to evaporate." Above all, I am grateful and indebted to my family for helping me as I start to spread my wings. At this point of my life, I’m paying their good deeds forward.