Come on, give it up
“Oh, pay it forward?”
“Wow, it’s like that movie, ‘Pay It Forward.’”
“See, you give and it always comes back to you.”
These are the responses I get every time I try to share my miraculous story of giving money away. People keep interrupting me with references to “Pay it Forward” (a movie I haven’t seen)or a variation of biblical quotes involving reaping and sowing and planting and gathering. (Are the Gospels just an earlier version of Farmer’s Almanac?)
So I hereby share my miraculous story with you. If you agree to read, I’ll not only agree to watch “Pay It Forward” (a film advocating random deeds of mercy), I’ll also heed all gardening-related tips from the Gospels.
So here goes:
I recently gave away $400 that I didn't really have, and miraculously, I've incurred a net financial loss of exactly $0.00.
Before Christmas, my wife and I pulled together some money to help one of my brothers and his family. Like millions of Americans in recent years, my brother lost his job — a high-paying job. Then, he lost his house, then his car. He, his wife, and their two boys now live in a ramshackle rental. Their world has been turned upside down.
"I'm going to send them $200," I said to my wife. We didn't really have $200 to give. But I have tried to live within the bookends of two maxims. One is from a priest friend who defines mercy as "the pain in our hearts for another person's pain, and taking pains to do something about it.” And the other is from my grandfather who would say, “Don’t be a cheapskate.”
It has been painful to witness how my brother, who would head to work each morning looking sharp, proud to be a breadwinner, now struggling to find purpose in his life.
Sending him the $200 (to pay from Christmas gifts for his two boys) was our attempt to take great pains to help him. But the “pain” part of the equation didn't work out that way. The day after we mailed the money, I was offered a quick photography freelance assignment out of the blue, which, of course, I took. By the time I logged in my hours, I had earned exactly … $200.
I thought to myself, "Hmm. Interesting."
So I sent my brother another $200.
Now, just bear with me.
In an effort to save money on heating costs, I installed a woodstove in our home. I had done the math. We had free wood to burn. Economically, it was the right thing to do. But my plan hit a snag when I couldn't manage to get the last two sections of stovepipe up on the roof because of its height and the roof’s pitch. We had to have scaffolding set up to finish the job, though we weren't too sure how we would pay for it.
We hired a contractor named David who came with his crew and set up the scaffolding. Neither my wife nor I had ever met David.
After the stovepipe job was complete and the scaffolding taken away, my wife and I were going over our monthly expenses. We estimated the bill for the scaffolding (considering set-up time and travel expenses) would probably cost us at least (you guessed it!) $200.
We soon received an invoice in the mail from David that read:
Amount owed.........................................................$0.00
And David included a typewritten note to us:
Dear Felix and Cara,
At times like these, when someone is able, they help out friends. If we all did that, maybe the world would be a better place. I could say to you, "I have done this for you, now go out and do the same thing in someway for another person," but I have a feeling you are the type of people who already would.
So go use this money that you would have used to rent this scaffolding and buy something for Henry for Christmas.
Glad to help,
David.
Henry is our son. I couldn't believe David's kindness. I want to laminate his letter. My wife and I read it to each other — twice.
Again: $200. I can't give it away.
Still I will try, I’ll have to try, even though I'm positive it will come back to me in other ways because, apparently, that’s the miracle of spiritual physics: When we give it away, it comes back to us like a boomerang.
Having said all that, did you know there is an International Pay It Forward Day? I didn’t, but now I do. It’s Thursday, April 28.
And did you also know that “Give, and gifts will be given to you"? That’s a quote taken directly from the Gospels, which apparently are not only about gardening but also microeconomics.
“Wow, it’s like that movie, ‘Pay It Forward.’”
“See, you give and it always comes back to you.”
These are the responses I get every time I try to share my miraculous story of giving money away. People keep interrupting me with references to “Pay it Forward” (a movie I haven’t seen)or a variation of biblical quotes involving reaping and sowing and planting and gathering. (Are the Gospels just an earlier version of Farmer’s Almanac?)
So I hereby share my miraculous story with you. If you agree to read, I’ll not only agree to watch “Pay It Forward” (a film advocating random deeds of mercy), I’ll also heed all gardening-related tips from the Gospels.
So here goes:
I recently gave away $400 that I didn't really have, and miraculously, I've incurred a net financial loss of exactly $0.00.
Before Christmas, my wife and I pulled together some money to help one of my brothers and his family. Like millions of Americans in recent years, my brother lost his job — a high-paying job. Then, he lost his house, then his car. He, his wife, and their two boys now live in a ramshackle rental. Their world has been turned upside down.
"I'm going to send them $200," I said to my wife. We didn't really have $200 to give. But I have tried to live within the bookends of two maxims. One is from a priest friend who defines mercy as "the pain in our hearts for another person's pain, and taking pains to do something about it.” And the other is from my grandfather who would say, “Don’t be a cheapskate.”
It has been painful to witness how my brother, who would head to work each morning looking sharp, proud to be a breadwinner, now struggling to find purpose in his life.
Sending him the $200 (to pay from Christmas gifts for his two boys) was our attempt to take great pains to help him. But the “pain” part of the equation didn't work out that way. The day after we mailed the money, I was offered a quick photography freelance assignment out of the blue, which, of course, I took. By the time I logged in my hours, I had earned exactly … $200.
I thought to myself, "Hmm. Interesting."
So I sent my brother another $200.
Now, just bear with me.
In an effort to save money on heating costs, I installed a woodstove in our home. I had done the math. We had free wood to burn. Economically, it was the right thing to do. But my plan hit a snag when I couldn't manage to get the last two sections of stovepipe up on the roof because of its height and the roof’s pitch. We had to have scaffolding set up to finish the job, though we weren't too sure how we would pay for it.
We hired a contractor named David who came with his crew and set up the scaffolding. Neither my wife nor I had ever met David.
After the stovepipe job was complete and the scaffolding taken away, my wife and I were going over our monthly expenses. We estimated the bill for the scaffolding (considering set-up time and travel expenses) would probably cost us at least (you guessed it!) $200.
We soon received an invoice in the mail from David that read:
Amount owed.........................................................$0.00
And David included a typewritten note to us:
Dear Felix and Cara,
At times like these, when someone is able, they help out friends. If we all did that, maybe the world would be a better place. I could say to you, "I have done this for you, now go out and do the same thing in someway for another person," but I have a feeling you are the type of people who already would.
So go use this money that you would have used to rent this scaffolding and buy something for Henry for Christmas.
Glad to help,
David.
Henry is our son. I couldn't believe David's kindness. I want to laminate his letter. My wife and I read it to each other — twice.
Again: $200. I can't give it away.
Still I will try, I’ll have to try, even though I'm positive it will come back to me in other ways because, apparently, that’s the miracle of spiritual physics: When we give it away, it comes back to us like a boomerang.
Having said all that, did you know there is an International Pay It Forward Day? I didn’t, but now I do. It’s Thursday, April 28.
And did you also know that “Give, and gifts will be given to you"? That’s a quote taken directly from the Gospels, which apparently are not only about gardening but also microeconomics.
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