My favorite lesson of the week was Mr. Allen's story about the woman that bought his coffee for him at Starbucks. The entire pay it forward idea is not only important to english class, but also important to everyday courtesy. I thought it was really kind that the woman would do something so selfless (Even if it's just coffee).
What really baffled me were the reasons why she decided to pay for some stranger's coffee. She could've been having a bad day and wanted to give someone else some hope for the day because she didn't have a great day. I find that possible but not probable due to human nature. Even though this good deed was great and the world needs more of things like this, I find that people don't usually do this type of thing on a whim, especially when they are angry. When I'm angry, I accidentally take my anger out on people for no reason at all. Maybe it's because I want them to feel my difficulty. Therefore, I don't think her doing it to help someone else on her bad day is probable. My next idea was that the entire thing was an accident. But I don't think that's possible because Mr. Allen said that the cashier told him that the woman paid for his coffee and food. My last theory was that she was having a good day and wanted to share the wealth. This would be the most plausible and probable.
The other thing about indirect reciprocity that makes it difficult to actually reciprocate is the fact that it has to be spontaneous. Mr. Allen said that he didn't buy the next person's drink. He knew that he had to come up with his own good thing to do for a total stranger. I've been searching for the perfect time to help someone as well,but because I've been trying so hard, and I don't think the right time will come because it won't be spontaneous. If I let time pass, I hope that I don't forget to use indirect reciprocity, and I hope that my time, to help someone, will come.
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Lauren! I loved hearing about indirect reciprocity too :]. And I definitely agree that the person who bought Mr. Allen's coffee was probably having a really good day, and it's fantastic that this person had the presence of mind to share their great mood with Mr. Allen! I feel that personally, I am either a really happy, jubilant person, or an extremely depressed and mad-at-the-world person. When I am a happy person, I feel like I am not good at channeling my good mood and I end up just being an overly exuberant creep, and when I am being a Debbie Downer, I am very effective at letting people know that I am grumpy. I get sullen and cranky and altogether unpleasant to be around. I hope that I will be able to take advantage of an opportunity to make somebody's day better, and hopefully they would pass it on, because this would make other people happy, and myself happy too!
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