She refused to take it.
"The guy in front of you paid for you," she said, nodding toward a car that was rapidly accelerating to highway speed.
I was so flabbergasted that I thanked the woman, even though she wasn’t the person who deserved my gratitude. The driver who gave me a free ride was beyond my reach, lost in the stream of traffic that was southbound toward Portland.
I’d heard about this sort of thing before, but this was the first time I had experienced it. Although I was taken aback, my wife Liz took it all in stride.
"It’s called pay it forward," she said matter-of-factly in her well-used school librarian voice, as if educating yet another wayward kid who had said or done something idiotic.
Wikipedia defines pay it forward as "a term describing the beneficiary of a good deed repaying it to others instead of to the original benefactor." The concept is an old one that dates at least as far back as Ancient Greece, although the term itself seems to be more recent. The many advocates of the practice have included Ralph Waldo Emerson, who wrote in 1841: "In the order of nature we cannot render benefits to those from whom we receive them, or only seldom. But the benefit we receive must be rendered again, line for line, deed for deed, cent for cent, to somebody."
It's a commendable idea. So the next time I’m on the turnpike, I’ll try to remember to cover the toll for the guy behind me, to repay that earlier display of generosity.
But what if he’s driving a BMW or a Mercedes? The one percenters don't need my help. Kindness has its limits. Or does it? It was the French essayist Joseph Joubert who wrote: "A part of kindness consists in loving people more than they deserve."
"The guy in front of you paid for you," she said, nodding toward a car that was rapidly accelerating to highway speed.
I was so flabbergasted that I thanked the woman, even though she wasn’t the person who deserved my gratitude. The driver who gave me a free ride was beyond my reach, lost in the stream of traffic that was southbound toward Portland.
I’d heard about this sort of thing before, but this was the first time I had experienced it. Although I was taken aback, my wife Liz took it all in stride.
"It’s called pay it forward," she said matter-of-factly in her well-used school librarian voice, as if educating yet another wayward kid who had said or done something idiotic.
Wikipedia defines pay it forward as "a term describing the beneficiary of a good deed repaying it to others instead of to the original benefactor." The concept is an old one that dates at least as far back as Ancient Greece, although the term itself seems to be more recent. The many advocates of the practice have included Ralph Waldo Emerson, who wrote in 1841: "In the order of nature we cannot render benefits to those from whom we receive them, or only seldom. But the benefit we receive must be rendered again, line for line, deed for deed, cent for cent, to somebody."
It's a commendable idea. So the next time I’m on the turnpike, I’ll try to remember to cover the toll for the guy behind me, to repay that earlier display of generosity.
But what if he’s driving a BMW or a Mercedes? The one percenters don't need my help. Kindness has its limits. Or does it? It was the French essayist Joseph Joubert who wrote: "A part of kindness consists in loving people more than they deserve."
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