Saving Me

Bluemem#9-The burden of "Paying it forward"

                 So in my english class we watched a video clip from the movie Paying it Forward. In this movie, “paying it forward” means helping any three people in the world without accepting any kind of reward for your good deed. When someone helps three people, those three people helped are each suppose to “pay it forward” to three other people and so forth. This movie suggests that if everyone did their part and “payed it forward” then the world as a whole would be a better place. When I first heard of this concept I  absolutely agreed with it, but then I thought back to a music video of my of my favorite music groups Nickleback.   

                When the music group Nickleback came out with their song “saving me,” I remember how in love I was with both the song and the video. This video starts off with a man being so distracted by his phone as he crosses the street, that he doesn’t realize an approaching car is about to hit him. Right before the car hits him a stranger comes and drags him out of the way. Right when the stranger drags the man out of the street, the man then starts to see numbers above the head of every person he sees.These numbers are approaching zero and they symbolize how much time a person has to live. So essentially anyone who has the power to see the numbers above someone’s head can try and prevent another person from dyeing if they see an opportunity to do so (this is not always possible like the elderly women entering into the ambulance in the video). BUT then the power to see the numbers above someone’s head is then transferred to  next person who is saved.   

                When I first seen this video, I knew that seeing the numbers is not something I would ever want to live with. It would just depress me to constantly see the numbers over the heads of family and friends get closer and closer to 0. I also know that if I was in this video I would try and save someone’s life if I had the opportunity to do so, but then I would feel bad about the burden I placed on them. (The burden of seeing everyone’s expiration date). I guess this is one example where paying it forward doesn’t always have to leave that satisfying feeling.