Before her book Pay It Forward became a hit movie staring Kevin Spacey and Helen Hunt, author Catherine Ryan Hyde had a real life "Pay It Forward" experience she related at the official web site of the movie http://payitforward.warnerbros.com/Pay_It_Forward/
As she explains it, twenty years ago she was driving through a rough area of downtown Los Angles when her old Datsun broke down on a ramp. The car filled with smoke and the engine burst into flames. She jumped out of the car to see two men running toward her, one with a blanket he pulled from his trunk. The two men smothered the engine flames without concern for their own safety because the car could have exploded, killing them all. By the time the fire department arrived, Catherine looked around to thank them, but they were gone.
Over the months that followed, she decided that if she could not do anything to repay the men who helped her, she would look for someone who needed her help when they could not help themselves.
The opportunity she found came with far less drama. It was a woman stranded on a road in the dark. Her car engine couldn’t hold radiator fluid. Catherine cut the hose and clamped it with her own tools. She then learned how much help she really was as they drove in search of water for the car.
From the woman's story, it was clear she had been involved in several violent assaults, yet she had survived. For this woman, Catherine was the first person who cared enough to stop and help her without any bad intentions. For this woman, being stranded by the side of the road was a life and death flip of the coin for her. She asked how she could repay Catherine, offering money. Instead Catherine replied, "Don't pay it back to me. Pay it forward to someone else." The woman understood. Catherine Hyde spent the next 20 years wondering what kind of world it would be if an idea like this caught fire.
In an interview after the movie became well known, author Hyde said "I confess that I often had fantasies of people emulating the book. There are infinite possibilities for ways in which this could be done. How many times do we step around a homeless person the street? 'Oh, dear,' we think. 'That person certainly has a problem.' But we let it remain their problem. We would not normally think to stop and make it our own. I'll bet almost everyone who reads this book has a warm sweater or coat in their closet that is never worn, that would never be missed. And I bet that almost all of these same people know of a homeless person in their town. So why is that sweater or coat still in their closet, when they could take it and give it to that person. It's a new way of thinking, to begin to see beyond our own problems into other people's lives and figure out if there is some way we can help them."
If you have not seen the movie Pay It Forward, rent it at your local video store and see if the story hits a chord within you.
As Catherine Hyde said, there are infinite possibilities for paying it forward. Sponsored To A Better Marriage is a structured way for anyone with concern for a certain couple or just marriages in general, to pay it forward and keep families safe from divorce, together and happy.
