Value for Thursday of Week 44 in the season of Assessing

Paying It Forward

  • . . . you shouldn’t go through life with a catcher’s mitt on both hands. You need to be able to throw something back. [Maya Angelou]
  • Maybe some day I’ll have kids of my own. I hope so. If I do, they’ll probably ask what part I played in the movement that changed the world. [Catherine Ryan Hyde, Pay It Forward: A Novel, chapter 1.]

Most people wish to leave something of value behind after they die. While we live, many of us wish to contribute something of value to the lives of people who surround us.

In teaching a class, doing scientific research, contributing to worthy causes, and in many other endeavors, we pay forward the good that we received. Altruism can benefit others not only now but also in the future. That is the essence of paying it forward.

Paying it forward is an old idea with a growing modern following. It acknowledges that the love and support you receive in your life—from parents, friends, teachers, mentors, and others—can’t usually be repaid, but it can be passed along to others.In other words, instead of paying someone back for a good deed, we can pay it forward by doing good for someone else. For example, grandparents may wish for their adult children to give to the next generation what they were given. Women may donate breast milk. “Bill and Melinda Gates, as well as their good friend Warren Buffett, are shining examples of self-made billionaires who prioritize giving back a significant portion of the fortunes they’ve built.Paying it forward can also be a helpful business strategy. Real-time MR imaging is being used to monitor brain activity during paying-it-forward experiences.

This was the idea behind Catherine Ryan Hyde’s novel Pay It Forward. Ms. Hyde has established the Pay It Forward Foundation, which continues to exist today. Its essence is kind acts to people, to animals and to the planet.

Pay It Forward Day is a global initiative that exists to make a difference by creating a huge ripple of kindness felt across the world. Unfortunately, the film was not well received, despite an excellent cast. Perhaps someone else will pay it forward by making another film.

Imaginary

Fictional Narratives

In Les Misérables, Valjean pays forward the generosity, as the bishop had bestowed generosity on him. In this mini-narrative, we can see how generosity (service in the present) and gratefulness merge to create an emerging future.

Father Madeleine gave employment to every one. He exacted but one thing: Be an honest man. Be an honest woman.  As we have said, in the midst of this activity of which he was the cause and the pivot, Father Madeleine made his fortune; but a singular thing in a simple man of business, it did not seem as though that were his chief care. He appeared to be thinking much of others, and little of himself. In 1820 he was known to have a sum of six hundred and thirty thousand francs lodged in his name with Laffitte; but before reserving these six hundred and thirty thousand francs, he had spent more than a million for the town and its poor.  The hospital was badly endowed; he founded six beds there. M. sur M. is divided into the upper and the lower town. The lower town, in which he lived, had but one school, a miserable hovel, which was falling to ruin: he constructed two, one for girls, the other for boys. He allotted a salary from his own funds to the two instructors, a salary twice as large as their meagre official salary, and one day he said to some one who expressed surprise, "The two prime functionaries of the state are the nurse and the schoolmaster." He created at his own expense an infant school, a thing then almost unknown in France, and a fund for aiding old and infirm workmen. As his factory was a centre, a new quarter, in which there were a good many indigent families, rose rapidly around him; he established there a free dispensary. [Victor Hugo, Les Misérables (1862), Volume I – Fantine; Book Fifth – The Descent, Chapter II, “Madeline”.]

Reunited with Cosette and about to die, Jean Valjean expresses his wish that the future rest with the young:

“May you be happy, may Monsieur Pontmercy have Cosette, may youth wed the morning, may there be around you, my children, lilacs and nightingales; may your life be a beautiful, sunny lawn, may all the enchantments of heaven fill your souls, and now let me, who am good for nothing, die; it is certain that all this is right. Come, be reasonable, nothing is possible now, I am fully conscious that all is over. And then, last night, I drank that whole jug of water. How good thy husband is, Cosette! Thou art much better off with him than with me." [Victor Hugo, Les Misérables (1862), Volume V – Jean Valjean; Book Ninth – Supreme Shadow, Supreme Dawn, Chapter V, “A Night Beyond Which There Is Day”.]

Poetry

Music: Composers, artists, and major works

The distinctive interplay of instruments in Iranian classical music for soloist and orchestra comes as close to expressing the idea of paying it forward as music can. The music is written in such a way that each instrument sounds thoroughly committed and involved, not only to her own part but to the project as a whole. As the music drives forward to the always-ebullient conclusion, the listener has the sense of deep involvement in a common purpose. This is music steeped in the traditions of an ancient culture, suggestive of the cradle of the musical world. When performed by master musicians, if you close your eyes, you can imagine the contributions from so many walks of life that made it possible for us to have this. Leading artists include:

Compositions:

  • Reinhold Glière, The Red Poppy, Op. 70 (1927, rev. 1949, rev. 1955) (approx. 86-108’): in this Russian ballet, the Red Poppy represents Communism, which the protagonist – as she dies - hands to a young girl as a symbol for passing down the Bolshevik Revolution and Communism.

Music: songs and other short pieces

Visual Arts

Film and Stage

This Is Our Story

A religion of values and Ethics, driven by love and compassion, informed by science and reason.

PART ONE: OUR STORY

First ingredient: Distinctions. What is the core and essence of being human? What is contentment, or kindliness, or Love? What is gentleness, or service, or enthusiasm, or courage? If you follow the links, you see at a glance what these concepts mean.

PART TWO: ANALYSIS

This site would be incomplete without an analytical framework. After you have digested a few of the examples, feel free to explore the ideas behind the model. I would be remiss if I did not give credit to my inspiration for this work: the Human Faith Project of Calvin Chatlos, M.D. His demonstration of a model for Human Faith began my exploration of this subject matter.

A RELIGION OF VALUES

A baby first begins to learn about the world by experiencing it. A room may be warm or cool. The baby learns that distinction. As a toddler, the child may strike her head with a rag doll, and see that it is soft; then strike her head with a wooden block, and see that it is hard. Love is a distinction: she loves me, or she doesn’t love me. This is true of every human value:

justice, humility, wisdom, courage . . . every single one of them.

This site is dedicated to exploring those distinctions. It is based on a model of values that you can read about on the “About” page. However, the best way to learn about what is in here is the same as the baby’s way of learning about the world: open the pages, and see what happens.

ants organic action machines

Octavio Ocampo, Forever Always

Jacek Yerka, House over the Waterfall

Norman Rockwell, Carefree Days Ahead

WHAT YOU WILL SEE HERE

When you open tiostest.wpengine.com, you will see a human value identified at the top of the page. The value changes daily. These values are designed to follow the seasons of the year.

You will also see an overview of the value, or subject for the day, and then two columns of materials.

The left-side column presents true narratives, which include biographies, memoirs, histories, documentary films and the like; and also technical and analytical writings.

The right-side columns presents the work of the human imagination: fictional novels and stories, music, visual art, poetry and fictional film.

Each entry is presented to help identify the value. Open some of the links and experience our human story, again. It belongs to us all, and each of us is a part of it.

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