Paying it forward is an uplifting
idea, one that has long captured the attention of literary luminaries.
The great American statesman Benjamin
Franklin described it in a letter to Benjamin Webb back in 1784 – “I do not
pretend to give such a deed; I only lend it to you. When you [...] meet with
another honest Man in similar Distress, you must pay me by lending this Sum to
him...” In his 1841 essay
“Compensation”, the thinker and poet
Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote: "In the order of nature we cannot render benefits
to those from whom we receive them, or only seldom. But the benefit we receive
must be rendered again, line for line, deed for deed, cent for cent, to
somebody." The phrase itself was
coined by reformer and author Lily Hardy
Hammond in her 1916 book “In the Garden of Delight” where she wrote “You don’t
pay love back; you pay it forward.”
Here in our local running
community, The Bull Runner (TBR) has
been enjoining yearly the TBR Dream Marathon alumni to give new runners the
same support and motivation they received from
others. To give back to the
community. To basically pay it forward.
Being a member of the 1st Batch
of the TBR, I have been blessed to do just that by volunteering to be a
pacer. I started it in 2012 and come February 16, 2014 it would be my 3rd tour of
pacing duty.
Over the weekend, I received from
my First Balfour officemates Joy Castillo and Iya Pe the race kit for
pacers. They got it at the send off
party for the 2014 TBR participants last February 6 at the Unilab Bayanihan Center
in Mandaluyong. These two young ladies
are gracious to invite me to be their pacer.
Getting a hold of the kit, I was
touched to see that they wrote on the front of the envelope the words “COACH
MACKY”. I dared not consider myself a
coach. I am neither licensed nor
competent to be a coach. Never had any
formal training and whatever running knowledge I get to share, more often than
not I have gotten from good old google. But I think it is more a testament to
their kind-heartedness and to the fact that I am way older than they are to be
considered their running buddy. It is indeed a source of joy to be given such
a title of respect.
It is joy that I feel in my pacer
duty. Pure. Unsoiled and undisturbed. Sadly not innocent anymore. Nonetheless, it is still joy. The joy of being able to know the feeling of
generosity signed, sealed and delivered.
No comments:
Post a Comment