Paying it Forward in Drive-throughs

[petrus4]

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/20/opinion/sunday/maam-your-burger-has-been-paid-for.html

IF you place an order at the Chick-fil-A drive-through off Highway 46 in New Braunfels, Tex., it's not unusual for the driver of the car in front of you to pay for your meal in the time it took you to holler into the intercom and pull around for pickup.

"The people ahead of you paid it forward," the cashier will chirp as she passes your food through the window.

Confused, you look ahead at the car — it could be a mud-splashed monster truck, Mercedes or minivan — which at this point is turning onto the highway. The cashier giggles, you take your food and unless your heart is irreparably rotted from cynicism and snark, you feel touched.

You could chalk it up to Southern hospitality or small town charm. But it's just as likely the preceding car will pick up your tab at a Dunkin' Donuts drive-through in Detroit or a McDonald's drive-through in Fargo, N.D. Drive-through generosity is happening across America and parts of Canada, sometimes resulting in unbroken chains of hundreds of cars paying in turn for the person behind them.

When I see things like this, I begin to think that maybe people are not that far away, morally speaking, from a TAP-like scenario after all.

[ArMaP]

When I see things like this, I begin to think that maybe people are not that far away, morally speaking, from a TAP-like scenario after all.

They never were, most people are ready to help with what they can, when they can, but only a smaller percentage is capable of putting other people's needs before their own.

[Amaterasu]

Exactly, ArMaP.

We Humans are quite generous - when We have something to give.  The problem is that presently so few of Us have more than We need (with many having somewhat less than We need).  In such conditions, the few who have plenty to give and are not psychopathic cannot give to all.

Only the psychopaths at the top of the money/power heap have enough to share richly with all - and, being psychopaths, THEY aren't sharing.

[Elvis Hendrix]

I love that idea.
If we have enough and we are feeling good we have everything to gain by sharing. But only if we have enough. And the irony is that could be so real so easily.
I remember one Christmas in London. My girlfriend had gone up North and my nephew came to stay.
London gets deserted at Christmas.
My roommate had gone and left me his Fireblade to play with.
I had just signed something and was doing ok. So me and Mark ( my nephew) jumped on the bike and went to an ATM and got some cash out.
Then we breezed into the deserted west end to find homeless folk.
It was magic we would redline upto someone and sling them a 20 till it was gone.
One of my best xmasses ever.
Spread whatever love you have.