A Pay It Forward Twist...

            You may remember the 2000 release of the film Pay It Forward. It featured an “A-List” cast that included Kevin Spacey, Helen Hunt, Jon Bon Jovi, Angie Dickinson and child actor (and Flintridge Prep student) Haley Joel Osment. The reviews of the film were mixed - primarily due to its emotionally manipulative plot and the untimely death (at the end of the film) of Osment’s character, Middle School student Trevor McKinney (sorry, “Spoiler Alert”).  Nevertheless, it had a respectable Box Office performance (#4 on its opening weekend) and has achieved an impressive DVD following - especially among Religion teachers (myself included) - who recognized its inherent reinforcement of Gospel values.

The pay it forward principle has percolated at the edges of the American literary scene at least since 1916 when the phrase may have been coined by Lily Hardy Hammond in her 1916 book, In the Garden of Delight, as a term for describing the beneficiary of a good deed repaying it to others instead of to the original benefactor. According to some sources, the concept is old, dating at least to Benjamin Franklin who, in 1784, used the concept to explain to an acquaintance why he should not repay the loan Franklin had given him, but to offer a similar loan to someone who would need similar assistance. The pay it forward concept has since evolved into a national foundation of the same name whose mission is to promote the notion that the one who is the recipient of a charitable act should be motivated to offer a similar act of charity to unknown persons in need of a similar benefit.

I recently had occasion to reflect on the pay it forward principle as I was stuck in traffic on the 110, having just returned from a visit to Transfiguration Catholic School, on the edge of Exposition Park, where La Salle’s Director of Bands Megan Foley and I had just delivered a supply of drums as well as a Vibraphone and an electric keyboard. The struggling, inner-city school had come to my attention last summer when I read an article in the Archdiocesan newspaper, The Tidings, which reported that the School had recently developed an instrumental music program as a way to attract students from the public sector who were experiencing a rapidly shrinking set of opportunities to pursue their passion in the visual and performing arts.

Having just concluded a highly successful Regents Campaign for the Arts, that, among other goals, had enabled the School to replace a variety of aging musical instruments used in our well-regarded concert band, jazz band and drum line programs; it occurred to me that Transfiguration School might have a use for these gently used instruments. I contacted the principal, who was pleased to receive this unexpected largesse and off to Exposition Park, we went.

I must admit there was a bit of an ulterior motive to my decision to reach out to Transfiguration School.  As an institution sponsored by the Christian Brothers, La Salle actively seeks out Mission-appropriate students who attend inner-city Catholic elementary schools and who require substantial tuition assistance in order to take advantage of our college preparatory program. It occurred to me that an inner-city Catholic elementary school, with an emerging focus on instrumental music, would be a great fit for us. It did not, however, occur to me that my effort to pay it forward would be utterly transformed by my visit to this amazing sanctuary of safety, Catholic ideals and robust commitment to the transformation of lives in a blighted neighborhood. When Megan and I arrived at Transfiguration School the principal had arranged for us to visit their band room where the Music teacher presented a sample of the School’s instrumental curriculum. We experienced third through eighth graders performing Christmas Carols on a variety of instruments, an amazingly talented sixth grader on piano, a rousing drum line (memo to the file: these aspiring musicians would make great candidates for La Salle’s drum line) and an African instrumental group that stunned me in their discipline and  commitment to musical excellence.

On our departure, the principal, music teacher and coordinator of the School’s marketing and development effort profusely thanked us for our generosity to their instrumental program.  The music teacher, an enormously talented young man, noted that he was probably going to cry after we departed, as he tried to find room for the instruments that we had left behind.

Here’s the kicker: when I arrived at Transfiguration School, I thought La Salle was paying it forward by donating our excess musical instruments to a worthy Catholic inner-city elementary school. By the time I left, a little over two hours later, I realized they had paid it backward by teaching me that it doesn’t matter how many or few resources you have, a commitment to the Mission and an unshakeable conviction that belief in the students entrusted to your care can produce miracles - in Pasadena and in the inner-city - is far more powerful than the resources we take for granted, or are suddenly, and unexpectedly, provided by someone we never met before.

I left the adults of Transfiguration School that day humbled by their amazing commitment to children - who don’t know what they can achieve on their own - and encouraged by their unassuming belief that music can create possibilities we take for granted. Not a bad lesson on paying it forward for this comfortable middle aged adult to reflect on during this season of gift giving.