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The Giving Chain

Photo Credit: Anna GearHart

What I witnessed at a Toronto subway station on a busy Saturday afternoon last month transformed my views on giving for good.

I was right behind a young couple in the line at the ticketing booth and was already hypnotized by the enchanting innocence of their five-year old daughter who had all eyes affixed on her. As her parents handed her some loose change encouraging her to pay for her own ticket, she suddenly jumped out of the line and ran to put the coins in the black tray placed in front of a miserable-looking old man playing what looked like a bluegrass banjo. People couldn't but turn their heads to notice that unquestionably selfless gesture of giving; unquestionable because there could have been nothing else in the little child's mind other than the pure joy of giving.

She ran back to her father with open arms and hugged him tightly in anticipation of his fervent appreciation for accomplishing a great feat of valor. As some men and women walked up to the parents with broad smiles on their faces and shook their hands, I'm sure the little angel got more appreciation than she had ever hoped for. I saw a sparkle in her bright blue eyes that I cannot forget in a hundred years.

Minutes later, I felt as if this had turned something on in me. While sitting in the train, my mind intuitively drifted to weave stories around what this might mean for the next few hours or days in the lives of the people who witnessed it.

The old man for example would stop by at that small bakery outside the station and buy some croissants for the people he shares the shelter with. That would be quite a treat for the dejected old souls at the shelter, perhaps resurrecting in their feeble hearts the pleasures of the lost times they thought had deserted them; much like their loved ones.

Or that well-dressed middle-aged lady who was the first person to congratulate the proud parents on having raised a humane soul amid the quagmire of greed and antagonism that this world has become. Perhaps she would reassess the bitterness of her gratuitous agitation on the phone only five minutes back on someone's decision to marry a person she didn't approve of. If it was her daughter she was talking about, she would call her the same evening and let her know that she will always be there to support her decision and to cherish the bliss of finding the love of her life.

The life of the curly-haired man would take a turn for good too. He would finally make the call that his father had been waiting many years for. He would find the courage to apologize for his callousness on the day he left his parents' home seven years ago to follow his dreams - the dreams he could never find. He would tell him that spending all those years running after a mirage of love for the things and people he thought would comfort his soul, has in fact emptied his soul of whatever goodness it had in it to begin with - the goodness his father had ever so lovingly inculcated in his heart while he was growing up in a small town.

I haven't forgotten about that alluringly beautiful girl who waited for the people to disperse so that she could bend on her knees with teary eyes and kiss the young child's blushing cheeks. The way she looked into the little girl's eyes and how the kid blithely responded to the warmth of her look made me think that she could see herself as a child in the little one's benevolent eyes. I do not know what her story is. May be she is new in town and has no one to turn to as she struggles to establish herself and make a respectable living. I have lesser idea of what she would do to pay it forward. But looking at her convinced me that she would make a lasting impact in people's lives with her compassion and gentleness that overflowed from her eyes one drop at a time.

I learned something that day. I knew that learning happens by chance. For real learning, one has to accept the challenges that come with it. Taking up the challenges that life throws your way and willing to step out of your comfort zone is the only way to learn something that would last a lifetime. Learning opportunities that are easier to come by are easier to go by unnoticed.

It is only by taking up a challenge that we truly expand the canvas of personal development. Taking, hoarding and squandering are much closer to human nature than giving. Still, only when the impulse of giving takes over does one get the true joy he was originally seeking through the triad. That is right - we get something by giving. And what we get is what we all knowingly or unknowingly have been searching for. It is very practical then to create a giving chain and draw the joy of giving from every action we take.

If we touch someone's heart today with just one deed of kindness, one by one, our lives, our families, our communities, and the world at large would become dynamos of change. It would take time for the first push to give way to a sustained momentum, but with every new link added to the chain, a multitude of new links will be created and the network would grow to take over the whole world. However idealistic it may sound, this is our only hope and our only chance.

At an individual level, the enigmatic charm of giving is longed for when you have had the first glimpse of the light. And then you are uncontrollably lured to bathe in the enlightening rays of your new-found sun - to rejoice in the infinite warmth that sets you free from the capitalistic impulses and the growing pains of following your dreams.

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