word of the year
Pay It Forward Day
Today has been Pay It Forward Day. I say “has been”, because it’s already late evening, here in the UK: I only just managed to get online, after a long, busy day. 
It’s therefore probably a bit late in the day for me to advertise the event and encourage people to become involved. (I know – in some countries the day’s still young-ish: if that applies to you, then please do go visit the Pay It Forward Day website at http://payitforwardday.com/.) But for those of us who missed the event, it would be good if we could instead consider this proposition: while it’s laudable to celebrate the concept of ‘paying it forward‘ on a day set aside specifically for the purpose, wouldn’t it be great if every one of the nearly 3 million people expected to have participated in the Day, by the time it is finally over, also took the idea forward into the coming days, and made it a part of their everyday lives? Imagine the earth-shattering effect! A world where paying it forward was the norm and random acts of kindness and generosity within our communities were no longer as news-worthy as they are today. It’s certainly an idea whose time has come, because the phrase is appearing ever more frequently in the news and on the Internet.
Back in January I suggested that generosity ought to be the ‘word of the year’: well, in that spirit, perhaps ‘paying it forward’ ought to be our phrase of the year! Then, as Ryan says on his excellent blog, 366 Random Acts of Kindness, “We WILL have an impact and we WILL make the world a better place for our kids, our kids’ kids, and even a random stranger’s kids.” What an appealing thought!
So, what do YOU think? Come on folks – let’s have some feedback and ideas…
Occupy – generosity
So, “Occupy” was the ‘Word of the Year’, then, in 2011 (according to the American Dialect Society, which voted it in on Friday evening). This was apparently due to the vast numbers of people around the world who have recently begun protesting about economic inequalities and the like.
So, here’s a thought… wouldn’t it be cool if those who ‘HAVE’ started a new trend, this year, by giving to those who ‘HAVE NOT’? And then maybe by this time next year we could be celebrating a new ‘Word of the Year’ – generosity!
