Pay it Forward or Don't....It's Your Choice

As I was scrolling through my Facebook news feed I came across the story of a Starbucks in Florida that had a pay it forward chain going on in their drive thru. The stories headline was "Who is Customer 379...". The reason for this headline is that customer 379 broke the pay it forward chain by declining to pay for the coffee of the person behind her in the drive thru. The barista said he didn't think the lady understood the concept of pay it forward. Which was not at all the case. She just simply declined to pay it forward. Why this story made the news in the first place is beyond me. However, it did and it led me to think that this is a perfect demonstration of what's wrong with the world today and no I am not referring to the women who broke the chain. I'm referring to the barista, the news and anyone else who thinks this person who stopped the chain is in the wrong and won't accept the fact that she made a choice that was hers to make. She didn't hurt anyone by making this choice (which is a very important thing to remember). The person behind her still got their coffee and can start the pay it forward chain all over if they wish to do so. That is their choice to make as well. It shouldn't matter that she declined to pay it forward. We live in America. We have the freedom of choice. Unfortunately when people use that power of choice to go against the grain they are ridiculed, put in the news for public consumption and told how bad they are because they didn't follow the majority. This is unfortunate. Who are the real bullies?! The real bullies are anyone and everyone who thinks everyone else should agree with them or do what ever they say should be done, or think that because you believe or think differently then they do, you are bad or wrong. Sorry bullies but you're clearly not living in reality. Reality is diversity and diversity promotes the acceptance of differences not the acceptance of similarities or the acceptance of thinking and believing the same way as everyone else. Sameness is boring. Diversity is exciting. It's WRONG to be mean or to ostracize or to ridicule people who don't think like you do or don't believe what you believe. It doesn't matter what side of whatever issue you're on and it doesn't matter what your belief system is. Forcing people to think or believe the same way you do or ridiculing people who don't agree with you is wrong. Republican or Democrat, man or women, gay or straight, vegetarian or meat eater, animal activist or hunter and so on and so on. It is RIGHT to accept the fact that people have differences, to be tolerant of others who are not like you, to accept that others think or believe differently then you and to love everyone even if you don't agree with them. If you can't get over the fact that everyone doesn't think, believe or act like you...that's your problem. Not theirs. The world would be a much better place if everyone just realized and accepted the fact that there will never be a time when everyone agrees. Promoting your message, whatever it may be is good. We all want a voice at some point. What's wrong is that in today's world those messages are promoted with hate instead of love. Whatever that message may be and this is truly unfortunate. Remember that you have a choice. You get to choose love or hate, diversity or sameness, acceptance or rejection. You have the power. Choose wisely and be the change you are looking for. #onelove