If someone did you a favor -- something big, something you couldn't do on your own, and instead of paying it back, you paid it "forward" to three people...and what if they each paid it forward to another three people...and those twenty-seven people paid it forward to three more people...
It may star Academy Award winners Kevin Spacey and Helen Hunt, but the concept behind the hit drama Pay It Forward goes way beyond glitzy celeb trappings. As seventh-grader Trevor McKinney, Haley Joel Osment comes up with a concept that goes beyond his backyard. The film asks the audience to believe that they can be better people and make a kinder world, by just doing as the title suggests, paying it forward.
You're probably wondering if an idea that simple could really work in the "real world?" Can people not be selfish for one second, and help out their fellow man, or woman, or child? What would your favor be? Most importantly, are there enough non-cynical, non-bitter people out there to keep the "paying it forward movement" alive?
In a word, yes.
Come on, think about it. Wouldn't it be great if on the most basic level, you could do just one unselfish act for a stranger, even if it meant giving beyond what you ordinarily would or could give. Or forgive someone the unforgivable.
Here's the key: if I can believe it can happen, it's possible. Okay, it might get exhausting. But start small -- on your way home tonight, let that car merge in front of you. Tomorrow morning, allow an elderly person to cut you in line at the coffee shop. In a few days, these thoughtful gestures could grow into something bigger. How can you make it happen?
There really is no better time to take the pay it forward idea off the screen and apply it in the real world. As we head into the holiday season -- a season most noted for being "a time to give" -- we have a perfect opportunity to put it into motion.
You've got the concept, now "pay it forward" -- to complete strangers. Prove that it is better to give than to receive. 
