I watched the movie Pay it Forward last night. I had heard of the concept, but just now got around to viewing it. It’s a great idea, but isn’t that what we’re supposed to do for others anyway? I think our human nature is to want to be kind and help others, and when someone helps us we naturally want to be more caring to others since we have been on the receiving end. I think we’ve just gotten away from caring for others because we’ve become a numb society from living in crowded cities, and having people in need in our faces on a daily basis. So now it’s a ‘movement’ with rules of conduct and now it’s seen as a wonderful new concept. Sometimes I think our society is totally lost and there is no hope for us at all.
I see knitting as a means to pay it forward. Someone taught me to knit ages ago as a young girl, (though I didn’t really pick it up until later in my thirties). Every time I teach someone to knit or give a knitted gift, I am paying it forward. I give many knitted gifts, although I usually save knitted hats for close friends or family since I don’t especially enjoy knitting them. But I broke this rule last December. My son said to me after school one day, “How hard was it to knit my elf hat?”
I was hoping he planned to knit himself another one. “Not hard, why?” I said.
“Because two of my friends want hats like this one.” He said.
Ugh. TWO knitted hats – for two kids I didn’t really know, who weren’t especially good friends to my son. I thought for a minute. I gently encouraged him to knit them himself with my help. He wasn’t buying it. Then I said, trying to dissuade him, “I would sell these for $20 if someone I didn’t know well wanted one.”
He said, “I’ll pay for them if you’ll knit them.”
I caved. “Okay, I’ll do it. You don’t have to pay for them, I’ll do it for free, but don’t tell anyone else that I’ll knit for them. And I can’t promise when they’ll be done.”
I began knitting in the following days and the hats were done within a week. They took about two days to dry after I washed them and he could hardly wait. He had told them I was knitting them and the boys were anxiously awaiting their hats, too. The pressure!
He finally delivered them and the boys’ reactions made it very worthwhile. They were thrilled and wore them home at the end of the day. I had included a handwritten note to the parents which detailed washing instructions (the hats were wool), and explaining that my son wanted to do this. In response, one mother thanked me personally and had her son do the same, and for many weeks I didn’t hear from the other boy. Then I got a wonderful thank you note. It said, “Thank you for the awsome hat. I lost it and then I found it and I was so happy.” That is a keeper.
Pay it forward, indeed.
