Pay it forward…..how about that?

Ever seen the beautiful movie “Pay it forward” (2000) with Kevin Spacey (Eugene Simonet)and Helen Hunt (Arlene McKinney ) together with the most extraordinary character of the young child Trevor McKinney, played by Haley Joel Osment?

“Like some other kids, 12-year-old Trevor McKinney believed in the goodness of human nature. Like many other kids, he was determined to change the world for the better. Unlike most other kids, he succeeded…”
Very interesting, considering that most of the kids of this guys age are only interested in gathering more for themself..I remember the first time I saw it, we rented the movie and I was completely stunned! I just LOVE the actors Kevin Spacey and Helen Hunt, one of the reasons to watch this movie, but the incredible impressing acting of the young Haley Joel Osment was a total apocalypse!

I have seen this movie about 8 times during the last years, each time over and over again I was moved to the bone…
A synopsis of this movie:

A 12-year-old schoolboy in Las Vegas, Nevada named Trevor McKinney (Haley Joel Osment) is given a class project to complete by his social studies teacher Eugene Simonet (Kevin Spacey), a man with terrible burn scars on his face and neck. His task is to come up with a plan that will change the world through direct action. On his way home from school later that day, Trevor notices a homeless man, Jerry (James Caviezel) and decides to make a difference in Jerry’s life. Trevor then comes up with the plan to “pay it forward” by doing a good deed for three people who must in turn each do good deeds for three other people, creating a charitable pyramid scheme. Trevor’s plan is to help Jerry by feeding and housing him so he can “get on his feet.”(Source: WikiPedia. Bangs_McCoy)What do we find back from this movie in real life?
Who of us is prepared to pay Love forward? Without the need to reveal what they did? Without spreading the need to gain something back in return?
In my belief this world is filled up with at one side the so called GIVERS:  people who donate everything they have and are  here to HELP THE OTHERS. They very often “have” to learn they may ask things for themself too…
On the other hand we see the TAKERS: people who take FROM THE OTHERS without considering what will happen after they have taken from them. They ALWAYS put themself first…
And then there is another group of people; the so called TWILIGHTZONE people…people in this twilightzone do not seem to be able to make a choice, GIVE or TAKE…and are still in a kind of reserve zone…a non aware state of mind. They just don’t know…

The next morning, Trevor’s mother, Arlene McKinney (Helen Hunt), a single mother recovering from alcoholism, becomes angry with Trevor after finding Jerry in their house. She then accuses and confronts Eugene at the school about the reason Trevor has allowed Jerry into their home. Eugene is also intrigued by Trevor’s response to the social studies project.

Later that night back at their home, Trevor confronts his mother about her alcoholism, and in a fit of anger she slaps him across the face. Trevor runs away from home, and Arlene asks Eugene to help her find him. They find Trevor at a bus station, about to be molested. Trevor and Arlene embrace in relief after Arlene apologizes profusely.

Meanwhile, Chris (Jay Mohr), a journalist, is trying to find out why a total stranger gave him a brand new Jaguar S-Type car after Chris’ old 1965 Ford Mustang was damaged in a car accident. The stranger’s only explanation is that he is simply “paying it forward”. When Chris asks him for more information, the man explains that, when he recently visited a hospital while his daughter was suffering an asthma attack, a gang member suffering from a stab wound actually took up a gun to force the doctors to look at the man’s daughter before she collapsed, prompting Chris to begin his search again.

After Trevor’s apparently unsuccessful attempt to help Jerry, he decides to help Eugene by setting him up with Arlene, Trevor’s own mother. Their relationship grows in strength until Arlene’s ex-husband, Ricky (Jon Bon Jovi), who claims he has “changed” and has quit drinking, shows up unannounced and Arlene decides to give him another chance. When Arlene later tries to explain her choice to Eugene, the audience learns how Eugene’s burns were the result of terrible child abuse by his father. Eugene is concerned not just about the abusive and violent nature of Trevor’s father, but that the simple absence of a loving father is detrimental to Trevor’s well-being. He explains that his father was always abusive of him and his mother always took him back. At thirteen, Eugene ran away from home and returned home when he was 16, asking his mother to come with him but his father knocked him out and proceeded to burn him, resulting in a number of scars on his chest. Arlene feels that she must nevertheless give her ex-husband another chance, but shortly thereafter he becomes angry and violent and it appears that he has not in fact stopped drinking alcohol. Arlene realizes what a terrible mistake she has made. She feels that Eugene will never take her back, and Eugene for his part is not prepared to rekindle the relationship.

At around this point, Jerry, who has moved on to another city, discovers a woman about to commit suicide by jumping off a bridge; even when she throws her purse at him and yells at him to get away, Jerry simply talks gently to her, encouraging her to come down and talk to him about her problems. Meanwhile, Chris discovers the gang member who helped the man’s daughter, who reveals that he was brought into the ‘pay it forward’ movement when he was rescued from the police by a homeless woman in a car. Having located the woman (played by Angie Dickinson), she tells Chris that she herself was given the idea by her daughter–who turns out to be Arlene.
Arlene seeks out her mother, Grace, whom she has not seen in three years. She says she wishes to say something to her and gives her mother the gift that enables Grace to have faith that she can become sober for a few days, long enough to visit the family and see her grandson: Arlene tells her mother that she forgives her for everything.

Chris finally identifies Trevor as the originator of “pay it forward,” and conducts a recorded interview at the school. Trevor explains his hopes for the concept, but voices his concerns that people may be too afraid to change their own lives in order to make the whole world a better place. Eugene and Arlene are both present during the interview. When Eugene hears Trevor’s words, he realizes that he and Arlene should be together. As Eugene and Arlene reconcile with a passionate embrace, they hear shouts and scuffling outside. Trevor has come to the defense of a friend who is being attacked by bullies, and is trying to fight them off, although they are older and bigger. As Eugene and Arlene run down to stop the fight, the main bully who is a gangster-like boy impulsively pulls out a knife. Trevor is pushed onto the boy with the knife and is thus inadvertently stabbed in the abdomen. Trevor is rushed to hospital, where he dies from the stabbing.

Terribly distraught, Arlene and Eugene are later watching a television news report about “pay it forward” and Trevor’s death, and learn that the movement has grown nationwide. Venturing outside, they see hundreds of people gathering in a vigil to pay their respects to Trevor, with yet more people arriving in a stream of vehicles visible in the distance as the movie ends.

Thinking this over I wonder how many people really think about the reason why they are born, what they are doing here on earth and what their destination is. There is more in life than buying a new car, go on vacation, drink or live from day to day without having any idea why you are here. Does this mean that we SHOULD all be thinkers and rack our brains in order to gain some wisdom of how to live our lives all the time? Of course not!

Still, many of us are searching for their destination, asking themselves the same question over and over again:

What is the meaning of my being here? Why do I believe that go to work and come home, eat, sleep and go back to work again, raising my children, having money issues and get a pint at the local pub cannot be the real meaning of life?

How do I dis– cover my reason for being here? I know that there MUST be a reason, I just can’t find it! Can you answer this question?

I remember I was very young, as I heard people talk about that. And I felt totally amazed they did not know why they were born! From my youngest memory, I simply KNEW why I had CHOSEN to be here. I wanted to be a GIVER, a LIGHTWORKER, a HELPER to The Others…But as I spoke about it, people treated me like I was insane!

As I talked this all over with Brian, he smiled at me and told me that this was his one and only destination too. That he was here to HELP The Others. That he wanted to make MOVIES that MOVE people, in order to understand why they are born. To reach out for their destination and to be able to improve the quality of their lives. But what if you do NOT know what your destination is and what does this all has to do with  the movie “Pay it forward?” In this movie, Trevor understands his destination by DOING what he FEELS is RIGHT to do. Without thinking about if it is possible, he just STARTS doing it…

How many of us have GREAT ideas they never put energy in to accomplish?

How many of us have GREAT ideas and put in all of their energy in order to accomplish?

And how many of us deny their inner voice, because they BELIEVE it is an impossibility?

How many of us follow what they FEEL inside and experience that they get all the help they ask for, because they ASK for help?

And how many of us believe they have a GREAT idea but do not BELIEVE in themselves and miss their chances in life, ignore their thoughts and do not use their talents?

 And how many of us believe that each thought you have will be sent out into a benevolent universe? In the law of attraction? What you believe in, is what you attract…When you believe that this great idea will NEVER happen, it won’t. When you TOTALLY BELIEVE in this idea WILL come true, it will attract ways to get there and make it come true!

The movie “Pay it forward” is not only a movie that moves you, it is a movie that can MAKE you MOVE into the right direction! So whenever you can, go and SEE it! So you will be able to choose to give in to your inner lead that KNOWS your destination. To FOLLOW that inner lead. The lead that will lead to much more happiness because once you are on the road of your true destination, you will KNOW and RECOGNIZE it immediately. You will experience an enormous energy, a fantastic inspired life and will experience that you will pay that forward…
 

 

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