Has the kindness of a stranger ever left you speechless? Maybe when a scruffy bearded adolescent, dressed in baggy jeans and a studded belt, handed you his still 90-minutes-until-it-expires transit pass because he saw you standing in front of the ticket booth, wrestling to get your wallet out of your overloaded, oversized purse. Or when the high heeled, Louis Vuitton toting, Female Executive saw you struggling with your two suitcases and offered to take one as you offloaded from the packed sea bus and shuffled your way through the crowded terminal.

This holiday season I’ve been thinking a lot about the kindness of strangers and the concept of Paying It Forward. Do you remember the Kevin Spacey movie about the young boy who, based on a social studies assignment, decides he can change the world by doing three nice things and asking people to pay them forward? It’s been 11 years since I watched it, but I still remember the ripple effect of this boy’s seemingly small actions.  (more…)