⭐ pay it forward! (the miracle of the lost vinyl)
Last month on the way back from Boston I left some vinyls I bought for my friend on my train, which kicked off a long ordeal to try to get them back. Long story short, my friend in Boston asked her friend for help, who couldn't help us herself but recruited yet another friend from DC to help pick it up from the train station lost and found and hand-deliver it to NYC for me. All in all, no less than three people, two of them complete strangers to me, (not including the folks at Amtrak) conspired to help reunite me with my vinyls.
Today out of curiosity I looked up the vinyls on Youtube/Spotify to have a listen. As the music played, I laughed my ass off—the records were terrible! The pieces on them were chaotic, stress-inducing, and quintessentially modern. Naturally, I'm slightly miffed I paid for such terrible records, but I find it even more comical a bunch of people went through all that trouble just so my friend could be traumatized by that earsplitting mess.
Music quality aside, I'm still very touched by the kindness and generosity of all the strangers that helped me get those vinyls back. As I thanked the last kind stranger in the chain, he said he was happy to contribute to "the cycle of good karma", which reminded me a lot of Visa's blog post pay it forward.
As Visa writes,
Something else that I didn’t fully appreciate when I was younger: When people help you from a place of sincere kindness, in a way that brings them joy to help you, it can actually be kind of you in turn to let them! If you sense that it’s genuine, don’t resist it. Pay it forward.
People love to feel appreciated. People love to feel like they made a difference. People love to feel like they’re a part of something bigger than themselves.
Pass it on.
I wish I could meet all the people who helped me get those vinyls and take them out to lunch, or thank them with more than just my words. The reality is I'll likely never get to meet them, but Visa's words remind me that it's okay if I never get to properly repay them for their generosity. I can pass it on by doing something nice for someone else.
Ah, and in case you were wondering, the vinyls in question:
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