Thursday, March 6, 2014

Saya Nak Bagi...'Pay It Forward'

On 25th January 2014, a friend of mine write a status about 'pay it forward'. She offered the first 5 commenters who comented "I'm in" on the status a surprise gift. However, the 5 commenters must extend the 'pay it forward' spirit by offering another 5 people the same thing. Without any hesitation, I commented on her status...but...not with the intention to be indulged with gifts. The reason why I commented is because I like the spirit. Recently, I have also watched a video shared on FB which shows similar spirit.

I'm not sure if any of you have actually come across a movie called Pay It Forward filmed based on a novel with the same title. The movie was out in 2000, and here is the synopsis :-


When eleven and a half year old Trevor McKinney (Haley Joel Osment) begins seventh grade in Las Vegas, Nevada, his social studies teacher Eugene Simonet (Kevin Spacey) gives the class an assignment to devise and put into action a plan that will change the world for the better. Trevor's plan is a charitable program based on the networking of good deeds. He calls his plan "Pay It Forward", which means the recipient of a favor does a favor for three others rather than paying the favor back. However, it needs to be a major favor that the receiver can't complete themselves.

Trevor does a favor for three people, asking each of them to "pay the favor forward" by doing favors for three other people, and so on, along a branching tree of good deeds. His first good deed is to let a homeless man named Jerry (Jim Caviezel) live in his garage, and Jerry pays the favor forward by doing car repairs for Trevor's mother. Trevor's efforts appear to fail when Jerry relapses into drug addiction, but Jerry pays his debt forward later by talking to a suicidal woman, who is about to jump off the bridge.

Meanwhile, Trevor's mother Arlene (Helen Hunt) confronts Eugene about Trevor's project after discovering Jerry in their house. Trevor then selects Eugene as his next "pay it forward" target and tricks Eugene and Arlene into a romantic dinner date. This also appears to fail until Trevor and Arlene argue about her alcoholism and she slaps him in a fit of anger. The two adults are brought together again when Trevor runs away from home and Arlene asks Eugene to help her find him.
After finding Trevor, Arlene begins to pursue Eugene sexually. Eugene has deep burn marks visible on his neck and face, and he initially resists Arlene's overtures out of insecurity. When they finally sleep together, he is seen to have extensive scarring all over his torso.

Arlene accepts Eugene's physical disfigurement and forms an emotional bond with him, but quickly abandons their relationship when her alcoholic ex-husband Ricky (Jon Bon Jovi) returns to her, claiming to have given up drinking. Ricky's return and Arlene's acceptance of it angers Eugene, whose own mother had a habit of taking his abusive, alcoholic father back. When Arlene attempts to explain to him that she believes Ricky has changed for good, he explains that his father intentionally burned him by knocking him unconscious and pouring gas over him, berating Arlene for being "one of those women" and warns her of Ricky's potential to abuse Trevor. When Ricky drinks again and resumes his abusive behavior, Arlene realizes her mistake and forces him to leave.

Trevor's school assignment marks the beginning of the story's chronology, but the opening scene in the film shows one of the later favors in the "pay it forward" tree, in which a man gives a car to Los Angeles journalist Chris Chandler (Jay Mohr). As the film proceeds, Chandler traces the chain of favors back to its origin as Trevor's school project. After her date with Eugene, Arlene paid Jerry's favor forward by forgiving her own mother, Grace (Angie Dickinson), for her mistakes in raising Arlene, and Grace, who is homeless, helps a gang member escape from the police. The gang member then saves a girl's life in a hospital, and the girl's father gives Chandler his new car.

Chandler finally identifies Trevor as the originator of "pay it forward" and conducts a recorded interview in which Trevor describes his hopes and concerns for the project. Eugene, hearing Trevor's words, realizes that he and Arlene should be together. As Eugene and Arlene reconcile with a passionate embrace, Trevor notices his friend Adam being bullied by gangster-like kids. He pays it forward to Adam by rushing into the scene and fighting the bullies while Eugene and Arlene rush to stop him. One of the bullies takes a switchblade out of his pocket. Trevor is then accidentally pushed into the knife and is stabbed in the abdomen. Trevor consequently dies at the hospital. This news is reported on television; Arlene and Eugene are soon visited by hundreds of people who have participated in the "Pay It Forward" movement by gathering in a vigil to pay Trevor their respects.

(Source: WikiPedia )

Have we ever noticed that doing good to others will actually make our day?

Well, I think it is time for me to see things differently now. It is no point for me to be annoyed by ill-mannered people around me or being offended when my so called best friends are no more acting like best friends & etc.. Let's do some changes in life.

Therefore, I would really like to offer the same 'Pay-it-forward' spirit & my friendship to any 5 of my dear readers who willing to drop their comments in my comment box. Be it where ever you are. Here are guides for you :-

1. Leave your comments on this post together with your email address
2. Take pictures of my surprise gift to you & write a special post on how would you like to extend this 'pay-it-forward' spririt to your readers.
3. Put a link to my blog in your post so that I could pay you a visit.
*But if you do not have your own blog, you could spread the spirit through other social media, be it FB, instagram etc.

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